Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Saturday
CBC
The latest:
Members of the Canadian Armed Forces will be deployed to Saskatchewan to help battle the province's fourth wave of COVID-19, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said.
Blair said on Twitter Friday night that the federal government approved "a request for federal assistance to support the people of Saskatchewan" and that "we will have more to say on the situation in Saskatchewan shortly."
He said talks were also underway with the province to provide additional personnel from the Canadian Red Cross.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also tweeted on Friday night that members of the Armed Forces would be deployed to Saskatchewan.
The province submitted its formal request for federal assistance last Monday, a spokesperson for Public Safety Canada told CBC News on Saturday, adding that work is to continue over the weekend to identify what resources are needed.
Saskatchewan health officials reported 12 new COVID-19-related deaths on Friday, making it the third-deadliest day the province has seen since the start of the pandemic. In total, 308 people are currently hospitalized with the illness in the province.
Starting early next week, up to three intensive care unit patients a day will transferred from Saskatchewan to hospitals in Ontario. These transfers would add to the six COVID-19 ICU patients moved out east earlier this week, along with the additional three expected over the weekend.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority said Friday it may activate the next stage of its triage plan, as COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to overwhelm the health-care system.
Derek Miller, the authority's chief of emergency operations, said a committee made up of doctors and ethicists is set to prepare a formal recommendation to move to the second stage of triage.
The province has been operating under the first stage for several months, which involves cancelling surgeries to free up bed space and health-care workers to focus on COVID-19 cases.
The second stage would involve doctors consulting with ethicists about who does and does not get life-saving care.
"It's absolutely shocking, and there's no other way to describe the direction Saskatchewan is headed," Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said from her home in Whitehorse.
Officials from Saskatchewan's emergency operations centre wouldn't comment about when triage could start.
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