Saskatchewan announced that new restriction measures will take effect on Thursday. Quebec also plans to roll out more lockdown measures on Tuesday.
Beginning Dec. 19. casinos and bingo halls must close, while other personal care services such as hair salons must reduce customer occupancy to 50 percent.
On Christmas day, big-box retailers must cut down their store capacity to 25 percent, while smaller-sized retail stores—both those considered essential and non-essential—will be ordered to limit their capacity to 50 percent.
Saskatchewan has recently reactivated an emergency payment program, which offers $5,000 to small and medium-sized businesses in the province.
“We understand that today’s announcement may impact a number of additional small businesses, so those businesses may now, if required, and if they qualify, be able to collect the small business emergency payment,” Moe said.
These new measures, along with other previously announced restrictions, will remain in place until Jan. 15, 2021, when they will be reevaluated by the chief medical officer for changes.
“The opportunity we have during the holiday season is that the two places where we have a lot of contagion is schools and companies, including retail stores,” Legault said. “We already have schools … and construction that are closed for two weeks. So how can we add to that to make sure we curb the contagion?”
Legault said he was most worried about the growing number of patients in hospitals, which has a long waiting list for other kinds of surgeries.