'We don't know anything': Saskatoon theatre manager in the dark on proof of vaccination procedures

SASKATOON -

Roxy Theatre general manager Jordan Delorme says he supports needing proof of vaccination, but adds the province needs to do a better job of letting businesses know exactly what is expected.

“It's a little bit frustrating that we haven't been given any information. We don't know anything, because the government and the SHA and e-health is not actually giving anything to us as a business to say, ‘this is what you need’ or ‘this is what to expect on Oct. 1.’”

Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result from within the previous 72 hours will be required to enter several different businesses in Saskatchewan effective Friday.

People can download QR codes with their vaccination status from their electronic health records.

“We haven't been told what to do with the QR code,” said Delorme. “If we need a specific app, does that mean that every employee that works in the front needs to have a phone that has an app on it, that can scan these things?

“We haven't been given any information, so we don't know how to redeem the QR Codes. We just know that people are going to show up and have QR Codes.”

Delorme says he thinks there’s going to be growing pains with the process. He’s worried about people who don’t know how to access QR Codes and won’t be able to prove their vaccination status.

Co-owner of Dojo Ramen in Regina Christopher Choi says he’s all for something that will protect people’s health and safety, but would also like to see more guidance from the government.

“I think we just got kind of thrown into it without that much information, where the information we gathered we had to seek for it right so we had to search for a we had to do the homework,” he said.

“Before where the whole pandemic first started, we were getting notifications from the government or SLGA letting us know how we're going to deal with it or how it's going to be dealt with.”

Dojo Ramen general manager Jiwan Choi says she’ll be at the entrance doing the QR Code scanning on Friday.

“I feel like every restaurant has to make their own rules and processes about how they're going to implement this system,” she said.

The Ministry of Health says businesses can choose their own methods of proof of vaccine, not just a QR code.

They include:

• Wallet cards received at time of immunization
• A printed copy of your MySaskHealthRecord (MSHR) vaccine certificate (with or without a QR code)
• A screenshot of your MSHR vaccine certificate (with or without a QR code) saved to your device
• An earlier version of your MSHR COVID-19 vaccine certificate
• A COVID-19 vaccine printout from Saskatchewan Health Authority Public Health
• To come - A QR code/MySaskHealthRecord vaccine certificate uploaded to SK Vax Wallet

The Saskatchewan Health Authority will no longer provide testing for asymptomatic people unless they’ve been identified as a close contact, have had a positive rapid antigen test, identified as part of an outbreak situation or require transfer or admission to long-term care, primary care, social services or intensive care units.

Have a news story? Is there something that CTV News Saskatoon should report on? Submit a news tip.