Wearing a mask is officially optional in healthcare facilities operated by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).
The big change was announced yesterday from the provincial government and SHA, backed by the support of not only the public, but healthcare officials as well.
Minister of Rural and Remote Health, Everett Hindley, shared some details on the policy that took effect immediately following its announcement.
"The SHA is moving back to routine infection prevention and control protocols–and that means that masking will no longer be mandatory for patients and residents, for staff or visitors to SHA run facilities," he said. "It will remain to be optional in SHA facilities–that includes administrative offices and hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities–and essentially moving back to where we were pre-pandemic with respect to the infection and control practices that we have had previously in place."
Say goodbye to those floor decals, as social distancing recommendations are being lifted, along with restrictions on food sharing and donations.
Hindley said the idea for these changes had been floating around as early as last summer.
"This is something that personally I've heard about as the MLA locally, but also as the Minister responsible for Rural and Remote Health," he explained. "I was fielding phone calls not just from families and visitors, but also actually increasingly from healthcare workers, including in southwest Saskatchewan, where they were starting to ask the question: 'When is it going to be the time that we can move back to previous practices?'"
Now that spring is here and warmer weather is approaching, the trend of respiratory virus cases declining, including COVID-19, is expected.
"We continue to monitor it very closely as we do with any other respiratory illness," he added. "As we've worked our way through the pandemic and now knowing more about COVID-19 than we did previously, and plus having the availability of vaccines to help reduce the infections, we have more tools and more information at our disposal."
When it comes to vaccines a change will be coming as well.
Proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter businesses and workplaces ended on February 14, and Canada no longer requires either upon entry for international travel. With these substantial decreases, eHealth Saskatchewan is removing the SK Vax Wallet app as of April 30.
COVID-19 vaccination records will still be accessible through MySaskHealthRecord (MSHR), and can be printed, saved and viewed on mobile devices.
Privately-run physician's offices, clinics and other non-SHA facilities will set their own policies regarding infection prevention and control, including requiring masking onsite.
COVID-19 vaccines continue to be available across the province.