‘A collective sigh of relief’: Shahab reflects on end of COVID measures

Things were different for Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer when he went to work Monday.

The last of the COVID-19 public health measures Dr. Saqib Shahab had recommended over the previous 16 months were lifted Sunday at 12:01 a.m., so his Monday morning had a different vibe.

“There was a collective sigh of relief for the most part, that people felt that this was the time when we can all enjoy summer in a way that we can make our own decisions about how much you want to do,” Shahab told Gormley on Wednesday.

“Certainly our case numbers in most of the province are low enough for us to safely (lift restrictions) … If you are fully vaccinated, your risk of going to ICU or, God forbid, dying from COVID is extremely low — virtually non-existent. That also lends a lot of confidence to people who are fully vaccinated.”

As of Monday, more than 1.3 million doses of the COVID vaccines had been administered in Saskatchewan. The province also reported 565,160 people — 55 per cent of those aged 12 and over in Saskatchewan — had received two doses and are considered fully vaccinated.

Uptake of the vaccine in Saskatchewan remained decidedly different by age groups, though.

Among those 80 and over, 93 per cent of the population had received one dose and 87 per cent had got two shots. In the 70-to-79 age range, 90 per cent had got one dose and 84 per cent had received two.

In the younger age groups, the numbers were lower — in part because they became eligible to get vaccinated later than seniors did. However, less than 40 per cent of all people between the ages of 12 and 39 in Saskatchewan are fully vaccinated (166,363 out of an estimated 451,080 people).

“(The uptake among older age groups) is the target all of us should follow because that will guarantee us a safe, enjoyable summer — and also, we must remember, a safe and enjoyable fall,” Shahab said.

“The reason I say that is because we’ve had Alpha and Gamma and Delta variants, which are more transmissible. So the higher we go (in vaccination uptake), the better off we’ll be in the long run.”

Shahab noted there is more vaccine hesitancy among younger people, some of whom, he said, likely think they’re not at high risk because of their age. He countered that by pointing out there have been deaths and hospitalizations in all age groups in the province.

As well, Shahab admitted there’s likely some complacency in rural areas because people haven’t seen COVID in their communities. Those areas also haven’t had the same access to vaccines as people in larger centres where walk-in and drive-thru clinics have been operating with greater regularity.

He pointed out vaccine teams are going to locations around the province to offer shots — including to remote areas where uptake has been low and outbreaks occasionally happen — and people have been getting them.

“Once the vaccine is right there, everyone accepts the vaccine,” Shahab said. “That still shows that there is this still-unmet need that needs to be met over July and August.”

None of the vaccines currently available in Canada have been approved for children under the age of 12, so Shahab said parents, family members and daycare staffs need to get vaccinated to protect those kids.

In addition to that, continuing vaccination also can help the province avoid a potential return to the kind of public health measures that were just lifted.

“We would like to think that the worst of the pandemic is behind us,” Shahab said. “But we will see clusters and outbreaks, especially in undervaccinated pockets, not just in the far north. We know that unvaccinated people are not homogenously mixed among vaccinated, so we will see pockets and outbreaks that still have to be managed.

“Unfortunately, we’re seeing that there’s a bit of a (COVID) resurgence in some countries in Europe that reopened a bit earlier and some counties in the U.S., so we’ll have to watch closely what that means for us.”