The Mintos have a pair of games this weekend, Friday night in Saskatoon against the Blazers and a home game on Sunday against the Blazers. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Jeff D'Andrea

Sports during a pandemic

With other western provinces pausing sports, will Saskatchewan follow?

Nov 14, 2020 | 8:00 AM

As of Friday, Saskatchewan is now the only Western Canadian province that does not have a ban or a pause on indoor sports activities.

Alberta’s two-week pause on indoor group sports in major centres went into effect on Friday.

On Thursday, Manitoba put into action a temporary shutdown of “all recreational activities, sports facilities, gyms and fitness centres.” And last Friday, B.C. banned indoor contact sports and physical activities in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley due to rising COVID-19 numbers.

Although COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan are not as high as the other western provinces, cases are still trending upwards. In this past week, 896 new COVID-19 cases were reported, compared to 560 in the previous seven days. Four deaths were also reported in the past seven days.

Despite the province announcing new restrictions on Friday on alcohol service in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs, as well as reducing in-person classes at schools and expanding mandatory masks across the province, the government did leave out any restrictions on sports. They did, however, put restrictions on indoor group aerobic activities—keeping class sizes of eight or less and making sure machines are three metres apart from each other.

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But according to Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab, the government is looking at sports and could have updated guidelines as soon as next week.

“This is an area that we’re looking at really closely this week. We may come up with some recommendations next week,” Shahab said. “We will be looking at the guidelines and recommendations. But again, this is a message to all parents and children, and adults who participate in sports, think of what you’re doing. Can you slow things down? Are you operating as per the mini-league guidelines? If you’re playing three sports, you should probably just play one.”

Shahab did acknowledge how important sports and recreational activities can be for both physical and mental health, during Friday’s press conference. But he also did say the spread of the virus has been occurring in sports and other environments—even when protocols are being complied with.

“When we look at transmission now, it’s in every activity, even where guidelines are being followed. We’ve seen cases in recreational sports, in gyms, in bars, worship services,” he said. “And what that means is we need to look at all those guidelines on a weekly basis, and either adjust those guidelines as we have now for bars and restaurants… but we all need to also practice those guidelines, as customers and not just business owners.”

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW