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The provincial government’s Opposition says a report on Saskatchewan’s long-term care system reveals long-term problems. The COVID-19 pandemic has put staffing and standards challenges in the spotlight across Canada, including in Saskatchewan, where a recent 251-page report from the provincial health authority revealed many homes struggled to retain adequate staff to meet the needs…

Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers leads a unique city in Canada, divided between two provinces and two distinct philosophies on reporting COVID-19 cases. The border city straddles Saskatchewan and Alberta, which have taken starkly different approaches to identifying the location of positive cases during the pandemic. An interactive map on the Alberta government website breaks down cases in…

Years ago, Saskatoon communicable disease medical health officer Dr. Johnmark Opondo says he was working in New York, helping to locate and contact people who contracted sexually transmitted diseases. There, he learned some of the best ways to get information from people — even if they didn’t want to speak with him. Contact tracers need to be engaging, open and good at gathering…

A report on long-term care in Saskatchewan describes aging facilities that do not meet current standards of care, facilities where four residents share one room, widespread problems hiring and retaining nurses, and overall problems with facilities struggling under current funding levels. Since 2013 the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has prepared annual reports on the standard of long-term…

As the province prepares to start talks about unrestricted travel in the northwest, leaders in area say there is hope on the horizon for the region as the number of COVID-19 cases being recorded in the area has slowed substantially.  The province's north was one of the areas hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, as of Saskatchewan's total 645 cases, 368 of them — roughly…