When the government of Saskatchewan first announced their intention to begin reopening the province's economy beginning this coming Monday, one of the questions raised immediately and often was how those workers who are now returning to work would handle childcare since schools remained closed.

During their daily press conference on Thursday, Premier Scott Moe gave an answer to that question; announcing that the 2,100 school-based daycares that the government had initially reserved for healthcare workers and those on the front line of the pandemic response would now be opened up to essential workers returning to work in the coming days and weeks.

"Back in March when we closed our K-12 school system, school-based childcare centres were allowed to remain open to provide childcare for our healthcare workers and a number of others that are providing essential services during our response to this pandemic. The good news is that we have been able to accommodate each and every one of those childcare requests from each of those families. And we still have a significant number of spaces available in the school-based childcare facilities."

The spots are available to workers associated with any business or service that was not directed to close and workers from businesses who are now reopening as part of the first two phases of the Re-open Saskatchewan Plan; non-essential medical services and some retail, for example.

In addition to the 47 school-based centres that had been operating under the government's pandemic response plan, another approximately 350 private daycares continue to operate under the department of health's strict COVID-19 guidelines, which include no more than eight children per room and heavily increased sanitation measures.

Those guidelines remain in place.

Application forms for the available daycare spots are available on the government of Saskatchewan's COVID-19 webpage here.

For full details on the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan, including opening dates for various services in each phase, see Swift Current Online's full coverage here.