Sask. to release COVID-19 modelling data soon: health minister
Saskatchewan residents will be able to see the province's COVID-19 modelling data "probably within the week," according to Health Minister Paul Merriman.
Merriman made the pledge in a media availability in Saskatoon on Thursday.
In a physician town hall on Sept. 23, Dr. Susan Shaw, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s chief medical officer, said the modelling data is available but is not being widely shared with doctors across the province as per a decision by the Ministry of Health.
At the time, the health ministry did not respond to a request for comment from CTV News.
Merriman said Thursday that modelling is one tool to be able look forward, but it doesn't take all factors into account, such as increased vaccination rates and the fact that 20 per cent of cases are under the age of 20 and there's a low risk of them ending up in hospital.
"So the modeling looks at one scenario of 'this is what could happen if nothing changed from now until a month from now,' so it's not the most accurate,” he said.
"We've seen in the past that the modeling hasn't been extremely accurate in everything that we're doing. They were projecting at the end of August that there was going to be six, seven hundred cases a day, that didn't happen.”
He said he had "no issue" with the modelling being released and provided to media, but in the context that it is a forecast and is not going to be "concrete."
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