Saskatoon should axe its local COVID-19 mitigation strategy, report says

City of Saskatoon administration is recommending that the city suspend its framework for reducing the local spread of COVID-19.

"The intent of the framework was to assist City Council and Administration in making data-driven decisions on potential measures to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 in Saskatoon, at a time when the province was messaging that municipalities should consider implementing measures over and above provincial measures," says a report to the Governance and Priorities Committee.

"Many circumstances have fundamentally changed since the development and adoption of the framework."

The city had entered critical "red-level" COVID-19 risk status earlier in the month. New measures City Council could consider under that status include:

• declaring a state of emergency
• closing recreation facilities and suspending all programs and services
• not approving outdoor special events and public gatherings on civic property
• banning rentals of city-operated indoor facilities for special events and public gatherings

However, council opted to maintain the status quo during a meeting earlier this month.

The framework was developed during the rise of the Delta variant, which happened after the province had ended all public health orders on July 11, the report says. But then, Saskatchewan implemented new ones including proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative test in some settings, mandatory isolation rules and mandatory masking.

"Together, these orders provide a layer of protection that was not in place when the framework was developed and adopted," the report says.

More recently, the province dropped its recommendation that asymptomatic residents who receive a positive COVID-19 result on a rapid test receive a subsequent PCR test to confirm it.

"This change impacts the data for the underlying framework, especially the seven-day average of weekly cases, the test positivity rate, and the seven-day reproduction rate. The use of rapid antigen tests in Saskatchewan has also increased significantly, and the data from these tests are not formally collected and reported at this time. This change fundamentally affected the foundational elements of the framework," the report says.

The emergence of the Omicron variant has also been a complication since the framework was developed.

"The Omicron variant has differences from the Delta variant, some of which would be difficult to translate into a data framework with publicly available data. Further, with the Omicron variant, medical health officers are focusing much more on hospital admissions and capacity, which is not in the current framework.

"As each new variant emerges the framework would require fundamental adjustments based on the transmission and health impact of the new variant."

The Governance and Priorities Committee is to consider the recommendation at its Jan. 24 meeting. If approved, it would go before council on Jan. 31.