With phase 3 of the Reopen Saskatchewan Plan only a week old, the government has already announced changes to gathering limitations on religious services.

Deputy Premier Gord Wyant filled in for Scott Moe yesterday, sitting in with Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab in the daily COVID-19 press conference.

"After discussion or with many Saskatchewan faith leaders and Doctor Shahab, we're increasing the number of people who can attend worship services to 30 percent of a building's seating capacity or 150 people, whichever is less. All other physical distancing and safety guidelines for places of worship must still be followed, including keeping family groups seated together and separated by at least 2 meters."

Under questioning by the assembled media as to why religious services but not other events like movie theatres were seeing the increase, both Shahab and Wyant talked about the structure of religious services as one of the reasons for the increase; explaining that the forms and routines of a weekly service made it an ideal testing ground for a new way of possibly expanding gatherings in the near future.

As Shahab explained:

"If you have the same people meeting weekly; so for example in a worship service. If you go and sit at the same place and it's always the same 30 people sitting in that location, physically distant among households, that's safer than random mixing. But then if you have enough space where you can separate that cohort of 30 by maybe another 5 meters with another cohort of 30, you can still have more people up to 150, but (still) have that ability to have individual cohorts at an event.  If it's a weekly event, try to have the same individuals at the same locations. We feel that's a safe way to allow bigger gatherings but with some safety considerations built-in."

If it proves effective in religious services, it could allow the province to expand other gatherings in a similar fashion.

"We will see. This could be a safer way to allow larger events and minimize the risk of transmission. But obviously we will have to monitor and make sure that it remains a safe way of continuing with our current low numbers."

Wyant agreed, stating that the size of church facilities made them an ideal testing ground, as it would allow those groups of 30 socially distanced people to be actively separated from other groups of 30, up to of course the limit of 150 if the building's capacity allowed.

He added as well that the decision was made with consultation of the province's faith community; insisting that it wasn't only one particular group that approached them, but rather a representation of various faith leaders on behalf of their congregants.

"Certainly they've been hearing from their constituents about the need for them to express their religious faith through ceremony, and that was causing some difficulty for a number of their parishioners, a number of the people within their parishes and mosques."

Earlier in the week, Shahab had stated that he felt that a gathering of 30 people was pushing the limit on what the province could handle without risking an escalation in cases.

By having various groups of 30, each separated by a further five meters, it could solve that issue. But only the next few weeks will tell.