Health Minister Paul Merriman. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME file photo)

By Lisa Schick/CJME News

Saskatchewan NDP calling for return of daily COVID data

Mar 9, 2022 | 10:46 AM

It has been several weeks since the Saskatchewan government decided to do away with daily reporting of things like new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, and instead switched to a weekly epidemiological report.

That report comes out on Thursday and has some different information than had been previously reported, but much of that information is six days old by the time the report is released.

Saskatchewan NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat doesn’t think that’s good enough.

“There are serious concerns about (how) people are supposed to make their own individual choices without being educated,” Mowat said Tuesday.

Mowat called it a political decision to reduce the amount and frequency of information released.

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Premier Scott Moe and Health Minister Paul Merriman have been saying they made the change on the recommendation of the province’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab. Mowat wants to see that for herself.

“If this is not a political decision, if there’s nothing to hide, there should be no problem releasing the full set of recommendations that have been provided there,” said Mowat.

The people of the province had access to daily information throughout the pandemic, so Mowat said it makes no sense that information would be taken away now — particularly when February had at least the third-highest number of COVID-related deaths in the 23 months of the pandemic.

“If people are being expected to make those individual choices, they deserve at least the same amount of information that they have had access to throughout the rest of the pandemic,” said Mowat.

Mowat said the NDP is hearing from people across the province who say this change is unacceptable when they’re trying to keep their families safe.

Merriman defended the change on Tuesday.

“The report comes out less frequent(ly) … but the information that’s coming out is more robust and more detailed,” he said.

Merriman explained, as he has before, that people should be making their risk assessments knowing that COVID could be everywhere.

“You need to assume that COVID is in your community, COVID is in and around where you work and you have to do your own due diligence and do your own personal risk assessment to make sure that you are protected,” said Merriman.

The responsibility is on the individual, according to Merriman.

“As government, we’ve provided all of the information on a weekly basis — other provinces are moving in this direction — and we provide the tools for people to be able to maintain their safety,” he said.

Those tools include things like vaccines, rapid tests, and people having the ability to distance from others and wear a mask if they think it’s appropriate.

When questioned about the lack of daily reporting for something like deaths, Merriman said daily reports don’t always show the full picture — including that a death may not be reported as being related to COVID for weeks afterward.

“So when the numbers go up and down on a daily basis, it doesn’t accurately say what has happened in that last week, and if we have the information over seven days, it portrays exactly what’s happened in that last week versus a daily up and down,” said Merriman.