Sask. premier, health minister say Dr. Saqib Shahab recommended shift to weekly COVID-19 reports

Saskatchewan's premierand health minister say the decisionto shift toweekly reports on COVID-19 data was the result of a "clinical decision" and recommendation from the province's top doctor.

The province moved from a daily reporting structure through a COVID-19 dashboard to weekly reports published online on Feb. 10.

According to Health Minister Paul Merriman, that reporting structure was arecommendation made by Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab.

"This is what Dr. Shahab has recommended we report out," Merrimantold the legislature during question period on Monday.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health confirmed that the recommendation from Shahab was made at the end of January.

On Tuesday, Merrimanreiterated that the change in policywas Shahab's recommendation. The health minister said he no longer receives daily updates on COVID-19 cases.

"To be clear, I do not get any information prior to Thursday," the daythe reports come out, he said."I see it Thursday prior to it going out to the public."

NDPhealth critic Vicki Mowat said thatraises question about the heath minister's judgment.

"Make no mistake that this is an attempt to hide the information from Saskatchewan people," Mowat said.

More transparency, information needed: NDP

The response from the health minister comes as the province's Official Opposition is calling for a return to a more frequent reporting structure.

The epidemiological reportspublished by the provincial governmentevery Thursday often share data that is nearly a week old by the time it is published, meaning any real-time analysis is impossible.

The latest report, issued March 3,provided information onkey metrics such as deaths, cases and vaccination up to Feb. 26 information that is10 days old as of Tuesday.

Mowatsaid giving people less information about hospitalizations and death rates doesn't make sense at this point in the pandemic.

The decision means people are unable to make their own risk assessments around COVID-19, she said.

On Tuesday, she called for the province to release Shahab's recommendations so that the claims could be independently confirmed.

"If there's nothing to hide, there should be no problem releasing the full set of recommendations that have been provided," she said.

LISTEN | Sask. microbiologist Joseph Blondeau answers your COVID-19 questions:

Despite the calls from the NDP, the request to reintroduce a regular reporting timetable appears unlikely to be granted by the government.

Premier Moe saidthe decision was based on health recommendations and was part of a broader move to treat COVID-19 like other communicable diseases.

"[It] also provides a number of resources now that are available in public health to start to regain some focus on some of the other important work that public health does across the province," Moe said.

On Tuesday, Merrimansaid the provincial response to COVID-19 will continue to change, with the province planning to wind downthe Provincial Emergency Operations Centre. It hasbeen in charge of managing Saskatchewan's response to COVID-19 since October 2021.

February3rd-deadliest month of pandemic

On Monday, Mowat repeatedly pressed Merriman to disclose up-to-date data, including the number of people in hospital with COVID-19, how many of those were in the ICU and how many people had died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

Merriman did not provide an answer.

Instead, he thanked the province's health-care workers for their ongoing effortsand highlighted the government's response to the pandemic.

The most recent reportsaid 44 people died of COVID-19 from Feb. 20 to Feb 26.

That brought thetotal number of COVID-19 deaths from Feb. 1 to Feb. 26to142, according to the provincial government.

That madeFebruarythe third-deadliest month of the entire pandemic, even with two days worth of data left to be counted.

There are 1,134 people known to have died in Saskatchewan from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest data from the province.

The next batch of data on COVID-19 is set to be released on March10.