'We haven't been downplaying this at all': Merriman defends province's handling of COVID-19

Concerns about overwhelmed emergency rooms WATCH: During Question Period, the NDP said the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital is at a record high. Wayne Mantyka has more.

Question period Monday was filled with pointed discussions regarding the province’s response to COVID-19.

Even more so from NDP Leader Ryan Meili, who spent his Easter break recovering from the virus.

“It’s wreaking havoc in our health system and in our emergency rooms,” he said. “The worse part of it is Mr. Speaker, the premier knew it would happen.”

According to the latest update from the province, 417 individuals are in hospital with COVID-19 related illnesses.

Minister of Health Paul Merriman defended the province’s ongoing response to the pandemic.

“I think the people of Saskatchewan need to hear very clearly that COVID is in our communities,” he said.

“It is out there, and people are contracting it. But what we are seeing is that the COVID of today is not the COVID that we saw of the fall.”

Merriman rejected calls that current hospital and death rates were due to the government ‘downplaying’ the pandemic.

“We haven’t been downplaying this at all. We’re very much concerned about the people and that they have all the tools they need to manage their COVID,” he explained.

“People have to be vigilant about what they are doing. They have to pick up rapid tests, they have to have them available that if they do contract it or they think they’re symptomatic they can test right away.”

The government says the current COVID variant is not placing the same pressures on hospitals and that many medical procedures are getting done on schedule.

“I can report that Saskatoon is doing 100 per cent of its scheduled surgeries,” said Merriman. “Regina is close to 90 per cent of its scheduled surgeries so we’ve actually increased our surgical capacity in the past few weeks.”

Vicki Mowat of the NDP argued the government is not being transparent with its messaging.

“There is such disparity right now,” she said. “With the government saying that COVID-19 doesn’t exist and on the other side you have occasional recommendations coming from our chief medical health officer.”

She also pointed out the strain felt in the healthcare system due to the pandemic is still being felt.

“When we see COVID-19 hospitalizations being so high, we know it’s an additional pressure on the system,” she explained. “This is not a sustainable system.”

Merriman maintained that personnel shortages were the main factor in the additional strain in healthcare in the province, and that the government has a strategy going forward with this year’s budget.

“Most of the challenges that we have in our healthcare system are human resource related and we have a very good plan to deal with that,” he said.

Going forward, the government plans to announce additional age groups that will be eligible for booster shots sometime this week.