Virologist says Sask. variant cases ‘escalating quickly’

SASKATOON -- As the province moves to Phase 2 of the COVID-19 vaccine plan, some are worried about the rise in variant cases.

The Saskatchewan government reported no new variant cases on Thursday. There are 433 presumptive variant cases and 135 confirmed.

Of those, 129 are the B1.1.7 variant first identified in the U.K. and six are B1.351, first identified in South Africa.

Virologist Jason Kindrachuk from the University of Manitoba said the situation is "escalating quickly."

“The idea of being more aware and being more cautious I think is certainly something for us to be quite prudent about right now,” Kindrachuck told CTV News.

While there are two types of variants in the province, Kindrachuk says B1.1.7 is more concerning.

“B1.1.7 by far in the way of my mind is the variant right now that we really need to be mindful of.”

As the weather gets warmer and more people become vaccinated in the coming months, Kindachuck said he hopes the situation will improve.

In light of the rise in variant cases, some are calling for rapid COVID-19 testing in schools.

Last month, the province announced tentative plans to offer the tests in a variety of settings — including schools.

However, Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation president Patrick Maze says the hundreds of thousands of tests still have yet to be used widely in schools.

In an emailed statement, the Ministry of Education said a testing plan has been shared with school divisions, "particularly those that have been affected by the variants."

"We have requested that school divisions, historical high schools and qualified independent schools review the plan and work with their local medical health officer to introduce rapid testing within schools," the statement said

Opposition NDP education critic, Carla Beck, said the province should be taking the lead in rolling out the tests.

“What I’m hearing from school divisions and schools is they do want rapid testing, but they need support from the government. They need clarity, they need clear language, they need clear direction,” said Beck.

During press conference in Regina on Thursday, Health Minister Paul Merriman said the rapid tests are available if school divisions want them.

“They will have to have somebody there to be able to administer the tests. It has to be done in a proper way otherwise we could get a false negative or false positive on that,” Merriman said.