Posted: Jan 12, 2021 4:00 AM CT | Last Updated: January 12
Minister of Health Paul Merriman speaks to media at the Legislative Building in Regina.(Michael Bell/The Canadian Press) comments
The Saskatchewan government continues to refrain from saying whether it will hold a public inquiry into the COVID-19 outbreak at Regina s Parkside Extendicare home, where 41 residents have died since late November.
The notion of an inquiry was first raised in mid-December by the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), followed closely by the Saskatchewan NDP.
Last week, both groups renewed their calls for a fact-finding process, with SUN sending a formal letter to Premier Scott Moe. The letter asked that any probe cover how COVID-19 got into the home, how it spread so quickly and broadly, what was done to lessen its impact and what preventative measures should be in place at the home going forward.
The head of Saskatchewan s registered nurses union says she s worried the province s plan to distribute COVID-19 vaccines is faltering and that RNs can play a greater role in getting shots in arms.
The president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) thinks the province's program to roll out the COVID-19 vaccines needs to be sped up in a signi.
Posted: Dec 19, 2020 4:19 PM CT | Last Updated: December 19, 2020
ICU nurse Whitney Walker-Ross was one of the first people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Saskatchewan.(CBC)
One of the first people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Saskatchewan says the experience was awesome, and lining up with other health-care workers to get the shot was like a treat.
Whitney Walker-Ross, an intensive care unit nurse in Regina, got the vaccine on Thursday. Just watching the nurse draw up the medicine in the vial was just like, wow this is actually happening, Walker-Ross said.
The federal government shipped out Canada s first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week. Saskatchewan s shipment arrived Tuesday afternoon, and the first immunizations were given at the Regina General Hospital that evening.
REGINA The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is reporting one new COVID-19 death linked to the outbreak at Extendicare Parkside. As of Thursday, 21 residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have died. The care home has 69 active cases among the residents and 82 cases among staff. The outbreak of COVID-19 in the long-term care home was announced at the start of December. Since then, the SHA moved 25 residents from Extendicare Parkside to Pioneer Village, another long-term care home in Regina, to lighten the workload on staff at the facility. As of Friday, 18 of the residents who moved from Extendicare Parkside to Pioneer Village have tested positive for COVID-19. Four people have recovered, two people are negative and one person has died.