Saskatoon on Highest COVID-19 Alert Level But No Changes Ahead – Saskatoon | The Canadian News

COVID-19 has never posed a greater threat to Saskatoon residents, but city operations should not take greater precautions, according to the city administration.

During a special city council meeting on Monday, officials told councilors that the risk posed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is now critical, according to the city’s framework for COVID-19. It is the first time that the administration has considered the danger to be so serious.

And under that framework, the council must close the city hall and recreational facilities and declare a state of emergency.

But administrators believe that such actions are not necessary.

“With the start of Omicron and all that it brings, our focus is much more on the internal actions that we are taking from a people perspective, to do everything we can to ensure business continuity,” said City Manager Jeff Jorgenson.

He explained that that means officials are working to be able to provide basic services, such as garbage collection and snow clearing, with the expected shortage of staff caused by people who need to isolate themselves because they have or were in close contact with someone who has COVID-19. .

Saskatoon has about a third of all active cases in the province as of Monday, but authorities said contact tracing shows the disease is not spreading in city facilities.

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That means services can continue as they are now – people can continue to exercise without masks, as per provincial government regulations.

Responding to councilors’ questions, recreation director Andrew Roberts said most of the city’s facilities had received fewer visits from residents and not many reservations for things like birthday parties.

The city’s director of emergency management said city residents know how to stop the spread of the virus.

“While the next month will bring some challenges for the city and for our community, I think it’s important to remember that we know what to do,” Pamela Goulden-McLeod told councilors.

She said people should continue to stay home when sick, wear the best mask they have, and get tested when they have symptoms.

And he said it looks like Omicron will be less of a wave and more of a spike, with infections increasing and then rapidly decreasing.

As such, he said he did not expect the city to experience the same plateau of high cases that it experienced during the fourth wave.

Councilman Darren Hill moved a motion for the city to begin providing masks on buses again. The councilors voted it unanimously, as well as a motion from the Count. Cynthia Block loads city facilities with the use of city communication channels so users know when facilities are least busy.

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