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REGINA — Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer says any plan to relax restrictions on public interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic would have to be looked at week by week.

Dr. Saqib Shahab said new case numbers show that it’s possible to extinguish the outbreak in the province.

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There was one new confirmed infection on Tuesday, for a total of 301 cases in Saskatchewan. So far, 187 people have recovered and four have died.

Premier Scott Moe has said that if the infection rate remains flat, his government would unveil next week a plan to reopen parts of the provincial economy. He cautioned that restrictions would be lifted in phases and depend on new case numbers.

Shahab said testing and contact tracing for COVID-19 will have to continue, possibly for the long-term.

He also said Saskatchewan has to look at other jurisdictions that have more infections and realize numbers can surge very quickly.

“We still have to protect Saskatchewan against importation of cases, whether from other counties or other provinces with higher rates,” Shahab said.

“Of course the hope is that over the next few months as this continues, there’ll be other therapeutics and vaccines that will provide another layer of protection against COVID-19. Because … this issue will not go away in the next little while.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2020