Unions, health professor say ending mask mandate in SHA facilities premature
Union president and nurse Tracy Zambory said "this is a virus that has killed people and continues to kill people at a rate of about 40 per month."
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Two union presidents representing health-care workers in Saskatchewan say they learned mask requirements for Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) facilities were ending through media reports.
“We were very concerned, and frankly, very shocked and surprised when we got the news they were lifting the mask mandates for clinical settings,” said Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), speaking Wednesday.
Zambory said the union wanted to mask mandates to remain in “clinical settings” to protect staff and vulnerable people.
From her perspective, when people enter long-term care facilities or the hospital there is an expectation they will be protected. While many have apparently moved on or are no longer troubled by the presence of COVID-19 in the province, Zambory reiterated in Saskatchewan “this is a virus that has killed people and continues to kill people at a rate of about 40 per month.”
“We’re so short-staffed, and now we have registered nurses who are going to be back sick again, potentially, because of this decision,” she said. “This doesn’t seem to be based in science; it seems to be based on popular opinion.”
Barbara Cape, president of SEIU-West, feels the SHA should be making these announcements and not the minister.
“The SHA is … supposed to be an arm’s length organization, taking care of the health-care system. Politicians should stay out of it,” said Cape.
Speaking to reporters late Wednesday afternoon, chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said the SHA is trying to improve patient and visitor experiences in its facilities. He said this should be a “gradual transition,” but agreed this “is the right time” to drop the mask mandate.
He also announced that people eligible should get a second bivalent vaccine, but particularly those who are immunosuppressed and suggested people still carry a mask and put it on around vulnerable people, like the elderly or young children. The risk of death is eight times higher for those unvaccinated, he added.
“It’s not like COVID is over,” said Shahab, although he noted “milder illness” is more the norm.
“We will continue to see that moderate rate of transmission,” the doctors said, adding people at high risk should continue to take precautions.
Asked if his recommendation was to lift the mandate before the holiday weekend, Shahab said, “I think we’ve reached a plateau.”
Shahab used the phrase “learning to live with Covid,” but agreed, “it’s still not seasonal like other respiratory viruses.”
From her union membership, Cape has heard some people are “giddy” the mandate has lifted, but for others working with vulnerable patients, “they’re concerned and they rightly should be.”
Cape and Zambory both said treating COVID-19 like any other respiratory disease is ill-advised, considering the death toll of COVID, potential health impacts, and the number of hospitalizations still due to the virus. Cape said anyone visiting a person in an SHA facility should consider donning a mask regardless of current policy.
“They are in that facility for a reason, and it’s everybody’s job to take care of each other. So wear a mask,” said Cape. “It is the very least we can do to take care of the people in the community.”
Cory Neudorf, a University of Saskatchewan professor in the department of community health and epidemiology, said from a purely data-driven perspective, “it seems a bit premature to me to be making that call” to remove mask mandates in health facilities.
“It’s certainly not just disappointing, but it’s depressing, in a way,” he said.
Looking at large spikes in COVID present in wastewater levels in Saskatoon, more outbreaks in long-term care, test positivity increasing and increased numbers of COVID infections driving ICU and hospital admissions, Neudorf says the data doesn’t support the decision.
“We’re still seeing deaths greater than one a day, so there hasn’t really been a decrease in COVID yet. We’re seeing a prolonged winter surge,” he said. “I would say that we should still be holding on to masking for a while yet.”
Neudorf said there is already little compliance with voluntary masking in the community, which he says is contributing to the current high rates of the virus in the province.
“We’ve been barely keeping a handle on this,” he said. “We stand a really good chance of accelerating that increase and getting more vulnerable people exposed.”
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