Tag: Saskatchewan

Sask. officials knew COVID-19 was spreading at an ‘exponential’ rate in 2021, but refused restrictions

Published April 23, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: April 23, 2024
By Alexander Quon, Zak Vescera

This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.

Newly obtained internal data shows the Saskatchewan government knew COVID-19 was spreading at an “exponential” rate in the fall of 2021, providing new insight into what officials knew before a devastating COVID-19 wave hit the province.

The Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) and the CBC have obtained a six-page briefing presented to top officials at Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health in September 2021, days before the provincial government publicly declined to re-introduce measures doctors said were urgently needed to stop the spread of the virus.

The presentation, dated Sept. 3, 2021, came before a wave of COVID-19 infections that killed hundreds and nearly overwhelmed the province’s health system.

The government would later have to airlift roughly a quarter of its most critically sick patients to Ontario because there were not enough doctors and medical staff to care for them in Saskatchewan.

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Saskatchewan

Sask. father found guilty of withholding daughter to prevent her from getting COVID-19 vaccine

Published April 19, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: April 19, 2024
By Donovan Maess

Michael Gordon Jackson, a Saskatchewan man accused of abducting his daughter to prevent her from getting a COVID-19 vaccine, has been found guilty for contravention of a custody order.

Following two weeks of proceedings, the jury’s verdict handed down Friday found Jackson, 55, withheld his then 7-year-old daughter from her mother in late 2021 to early 2022. Police eventually found the pair in Vernon, B.C.

While the motive was undisputed, Crown prosecutor Zoey Kim Zeggelaar said the results of Jackson’s actions were in direct contravention of the Order.

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Saskatchewan

Additional COVID-19 booster now available for at-risk individuals

Published April 19, 2024

Published by: Regina Leader-Post
Published on: April 19, 2024

Select residents can now receive an additional vaccine booster to protect against the current XBB.1.5 strain of COVID-19, one of several circulating in the province.

Booster doses have been available since April 8 and will remain available until June 30, only to high-risk groups or individuals, provided it has been at least six months since their last vaccination for XBB.1.5 or their last COVID-19 infection, according to a Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) news release issued Friday.

Those eligible include anyone aged 65 and older or any adult residing in a long-term care facility, personal care home or congregate living setting that also houses residents over 65 years of age.

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Saskatchewan

Michael Gordon Jackson’s narrative challenged under cross-examination

Published April 16, 2024

Published by: Regina Leader-Post
Published on: April 16, 2024
By Brandon Harder

Michael Gordon Jackson acknowledged some people might view what he did — taking his then seven-year-old daughter on the run across Western Canada — as…

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Measles is highly contagious, but vaccine-preventable: A primer on recent outbreaks, transmission, symptoms and complications, including ‘immune amnesia’

measles

Measles is highly contagious, but vaccine-preventable: A primer on recent outbreaks, transmission, symptoms and complications, including ‘immune amnesia’

Published March 21, 2024

Published by: The Conversation
Published on: March 21, 2024
By Mansour Haeryfar

Canada is seeing a resurgence of measles, with cases in the first quarter of 2024 already far surpassing the total for all of 2023. There were 12 cases last year, and more than three times that number so far in 2024, with 38 reported as of March 19.

Most of these cases (28) are in Québec, and eight are in Ontario, while Saskatchewan and British Columbia have each reported one case.

As an immunologist with a focus on host-microbe interactions and antiviral immunity, I have been following recent measles outbreaks.

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measles

Four provinces confirm measles cases, including rare case in fully vaccinated man

Published March 5, 2024

Published by: CTV News / The Canadian Press
Published on: March 5, 2024
By Camille Bains, Nicole Ireland

Seventeen cases of measles have been confirmed in Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia — more than half of those in the Montreal area, while one Ontario case has been linked to a high school.

Quebec public health director Dr. Luc Boileau confirmed 10 cases on Monday, almost all of them involving children and making Montreal the country’s epicentre. He said only three of the cases were linked to travel outside of the country, indicating community spread in and around the city.

Public Health Ontario confirmed five cases of measles and said all but one involved travel.

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Saskatchewan

SHA disposing of large quantity of personal protective equipment supplied during pandemic

Published February 28, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: February 28, 2024
By Wayne Mantyka

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is disposing of a large quantity of personal protective equipment (PPE) which was supplied by the federal government during the pandemic.

The SHA says it has warehouses in Regina and Saskatoon with PPE that can’t be used because they failed to meet standards or expired before they could be used.

It includes masks, face shields, gowns and gloves supplied by the federal government during the pandemic.

The SHA has now issued a request for proposals for recycling of the materials. The NDP opposition says it’s a shame that it’s all going to waste.

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Saskatchewan

Free supply of COVID-19 tests coming to an end in Saskatchewan

Published February 14, 2024

Published by: Regina Leader-Post
Published on: February 14, 2024

With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years in the rear-view, measures like masks, social distancing and free COVID-19 test kits have continued to wind down.

On Wednesday, the Government of Saskatchewan confirmed it will no longer supply free tests, which have been widely available at voluntary distribution sites like public libraries.

In response to the pandemic, the federal government procured and distributed rapid antigen tests to provinces and territories, making them freely available to individuals and families as a way to prevent the spread of the COVID-19.

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Saskatchewan

‘Every bed is full’: Saskatoon doctors at a loss in the face of jam-packed ERs

Published January 8, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: January 8, 2024
By Keenan Sorokan

Emergency room physicians in Saskatoon are becoming all too used to repeated apologies to patients for a system they say isn’t functioning as intended.

Dr. James Stempien says every shift presents a new set of challenges that rarely existed five to 10 years ago.

Rather than showing up to an emergency room, seeing a doctor and then being admitted to an appropriate ward of the hospital, more and more patients are being admitted and treated in the emergency room, linen rooms or hallways because there is nowhere else for them to go.

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Saskatchewan

More than a year after her daughter’s death at Yorkton hospital, Regina mother still looking for answers

Published December 7, 2023

Published by: CBC News
Published on: December 7, 2023
By Shlok Talati

It’s been more than a year since Gwen Gilbert first raised questions about her daughter’s death at the hospital in Yorkton, Sask.

Teary-eyed, Gilbert echoed the same questions at the Saskatchewan Legislature on Wednesday.

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Canadians’ life expectancy falls for third straight year: StatCan

Two pedestrians walk through a beam of sunlight in downtown Toronto. The bright light of the Sun contrasts with the dark colours of buildings and the shadows of the pedestrians.

life expectancy

Canadians’ life expectancy falls for third straight year: StatCan

Published November 27, 2023

Published by: Montreal Gazette / The Canadian Press
Published on: November 27, 2023

More than 19,700 Canadians died of COVID-19 last year, the highest number since the pandemic began in 2020.

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Saskatchewan

Sask. flu cases surge as COVID-19 trend remains ‘elevated’

Published November 27, 2023

Published by: CTV News
Published on: November 27, 2023

According to Saskatchewan’s latest respiratory illness surveillance report, flu season has descended on the province, with a dramatic spike in confirmed cases.

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Saskatchewan