The “Canadian Shield” proposal for Covid suppression (linked below) is interesting.

Saskatchewan has been close to meeting the targets here (Rt 0.85-0.9, new cases per day average declining by ~15% per week since early Dec), even with fewer restrictions in place. https://twitter.com/dfisman/status/1345173515763392516

The document is framed around the need for tighter restrictions (“a short, sharp 4-6 week lockdown”) but it’s not clear that’s necessary in Saskatchewan, with cases already declining at close to the recommended rate (at least, until/unless the UK variant reverse that trend).

A better question might be the importance of maintaining restrictions until cases levels are much lower (their target is under 1 per million population).

Countries that lifted their restrictions with still-high case numbers (see graph), immediately resumed exponential growth.

Saskatchewan’s new daily cases average is currently ~150 per million population (adjusting for undertesting over the holidays), already lower than the 3 of the 4 countries on that graph when they lifted restrictions.