New Sask. retail restrictions in effect for Boxing Day

New Sask. retail restrictions active WATCH: A series of new pandemic restrictions for retailers came into effect Christmas Day. Mick Favel has more.

REGINA — Boxing Day is one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Even in the age of COVID-19, that tradition continued for many in Regina.

“There were a few times [Saturday] morning when we had to get people lining outside the door,” said David Kuzenko, the owner of X-Ray Records.

A series of new restrictions for retailers went into effect at midnight Christmas Day limiting shops to 50 per cent capacity. The province also requires large retail locations to limit capacity to 25 per cent.

At the announcement of the measures on Dec. 14, Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said the reason restrictions did not take effect until Christmas was precautionary to prevent further potential transmission from any possible case increase following the holidays.

“There is a slowdown after Christmas for two or three weeks and hopefully these extra measures will further dampen any residual dampen any residual transmission that's happening in those sectors,” Shahab said.

“It’s a marathon not a sprint and we need to manage our COVID infections over the course of the next number of months, not just the next number of weeks,” Premier Scott Moe said at the same press conference. “This is more of a strategic move and effort to keep things as normal as possible [and] to start to really slow things down to stop that spread, so we don’t have to face the question [of a shutdown] in January or February.”

Kuzenko said the new measures were not a hindrance to his business.

“I don’t think the restrictions have ever felt oppressive to me as a business owner,” Kuzenko said. “It’s just always been a nice even flow that comes through here.”

Saskatchewan did not report COVID-19 data on Christmas Day or Boxing Day but an update including statistics from the previous days is expected Sunday.