No cases of Omicron COVID variant found yet in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman says he’s keeping “a close eye” on new information about the COVID-19 Omicron variant.

The new viral strain was first identified in South Africa between Nov. 14 and 16. There’s concern among scientists worldwide that it may be even more transmissible than the Delta variant, and could evade vaccine protection, although much more information is still needed.

Cases have now spread to more than a dozen countries, including Canada. Several cases have already been identified in Ontario and Quebec.

Merriman says he has been in talks with chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab.

“We’re keeping a very close eye. I met with Dr. Shahab specifically on this … to get his point of view, and he’s keeping a very, very close eye to make sure when we do get some information that we’ll be able to give that out to the general public. But right now, it’s status quo,” Merriman told reporters in the Legislature on Monday.

Merriman said no cases of the new variant have been identified in Saskatchewan, but provincial labs are are ready and able to identify it.

“I’m told that our labs are ready to go to be able to make sure that we can test for this specific variant,” he said.

At this point, Merriman said the province is doing its own “risk assessment” and again encouraged people to get their COVID vaccinations.

“The best thing to be able to defend yourself against these variants is get vaccinated — fully vaccinated,” he said.

As for public health orders, at this point there’s no change either. Last week, the province extended the current masking and proof of vaccination or negative test requirements until Jan. 31.