Neck guard sales jump after Sask. hockey player slashed by skate
13h ago
More adult players are now investing in the protective equipment.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority is taking more steps to strengthen its response to the threat of COVID-19 in long-term care homes in the province.
On Tuesday, the SHA announced it’s working toward what it called a “staff cohorting strategy” for long-term care homes.
The move is in part a response to Friday’s revelation that there was a potential outbreak at a care home in La Loche.
The province’s initial public health order was amended to say that, as of April 28, workers in long-term care and personal care homes can work in only one facility. The only exception is if a care home is unable to ensure adequate staffing levels because of the order.
“As an immediate measure, the SHA will implement staff cohorting for high-risk areas (for example, testing/assessment sites and facilities with COVID-19-positive patients) as soon as possible,” the authority said in Tuesday’s media release.
“This will eliminate potential instances where staff are working in areas treating COVID-19-positive patients while also working in a long-term care facility.”
The SHA and the provincial government already have implemented new requirements for screening and masking of staff in long-term care homes.
The authority also announced it has signed a Letter of Understanding (LOU) with the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) and five health-care unions “to support the creation of a temporary Labour Pool and the cohorting of staff to address health care needs related to COVID-19.”
The SHA said that could include the temporary assignment of staff within a single facility or community or moving staff to another facility or community as needed.
The authority also addressed the lower testing numbers the province has recorded of late. The reason, it said, was simply that fewer people have been getting tested for the virus.
“While there may be additional reasons people aren’t coming forward, it is quite reasonable to expect that social distancing measures will have decreased transmission of all respiratory viruses in the community, not only COVID-19,” the SHA said in the release.
“The SHA is finalizing its strategy to ramp up testing capacity to 1,500 tests per day by the end of April.”
That was the level Premier Scott Moe challenged the SHA to reach.
The authority announced three more testing sites were added in the past week, with Assiniboia, Kindersley and Swift Current joining the list. There also are 13 on-reserve testing sites located in the north.
More to come.