Dozens gather outside health minister's office to protest lax public health measures

A legion of masked citizens gathered outside provincial Health Minister Paul Merriman's constituency officeWednesday afternoon calling for more support for health-care workers and the implementation of public health measures.

Nearly 100 demonstrators chanted and bobbed signs as organizers, standing in the truck box of a red pickup outside Merriman's office, called for more action from the ministerand Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.

Theresa MacKinnon, chief organizer of the Concerned Citizens for COVID Action Rally, previously sent an email to Merriman that critiqued the "lack of leadership in your government's decision to entrench itself in doing nothing."

MacKinnon was upset when she received a response that acknowledged they had received her message, and then encouraged vaccination, masking as well asstaying home and getting testedif experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

She wants these types of recommendations to be mandated or, in the case of vaccination, more accessible.

"It takes a whole community participating in slowing down this fourth wave of [COVID-19] but we can't do it ourselves," MacKinnon said.

"We have to have our elected officials, [who] took an oath to serve us, to step up and take the action that gives people in public health to do what they need to do."

A website dedicated to the cause is asking for provincial leaders to:

• Address low vaccination rates through outreach, staffing and funding
• Tackle the hospital crisis, which hashadinadequate staffing and resources
• Mandate testing, tracing and isolating of allCOVID-19 positive cases
• Cooperate with provincial and federal governments to implement a vaccine passport for events, business and travel

COVID-19 case numbers still rising

In recent weeks, COVID-19 case numbers have spiked drasticallyin the province.

According to data released Wednesday, Saskatchewan hasCanada'sworst per-capita rate of new cases over the past seven days.

The province has 210 cases per 100,000 people on average in the past seven days, as per federal statistics.In Saskatoon, there are 968 active cases.

It's put the health-care sector under stress.

"I'm watching my colleagues throughout the whole hospital and whole medical system [drown]," said Robyn Mauza, a medical lab technologist in the city who attended the rally.

"The decisions made by this province are putting so many people at risk and it's really unnerving that nothing's happening."