Ontario LTC, transit COVID mask mandates could extend past April 27: Dr. Kieran Moore

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health says provincial government officials have been actively discussing the possible extension of the COVID-19 mask mandate in high-risk settings, including public transit and healthcare, past April 27.

Dr. Kieran Moore made the comments during a news conference at Queen’s Park on Monday, his first public appearance since late March.

Ontario’s most long-standing measure of protection against COVID-19 was lifted on March 21. As of that date, masks were no longer required to be worn in most indoor public areas, including schools, child care and retail settings.

Currently, masks must continue to be worn on public transit and in long-term care homes, shelters, jails and other congregate care facilities.

Moore said it makes “tremendous sense” to extend the mask mandate in these settings, including hospitals.

“We are actively reviewing it,” Moore said.

“This wave will not be settling until the middle or end of May… As a result, we’re looking at an extension [on the mask mandate].”

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Moore said he will present a recommendation to the Ford government in the coming days, and a decision will then be made.

Ontario’s top doctor said he will not reinforce broader mandatory masking. However, Ontarians should be prepared for that to return if a new variant of concern emerges, if the health care system is threatened due to rising cases and potentially during the winter months.

In March, Ontario’s top doctor rejected proposals to extend mask mandates at schools in multiple regions.

Moore said he strongly recommends people continue to wear masks in indoor public spaces.

“Yes, we’re in a sixth [COVID-19] wave,” Moore said on Monday.

“Yes, we will see a rise in hospital admissions and the intensive care unit (ICU).”

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Several public health officials in the region have strongly recommended that people continue to wear masks indoors.

“We’re not seeing that the compliance is nearly what it was when masking requirements were in place,” said Dr. Thomas Piggott, the medical officer of health for Peterborough.

“The situation is not all that different from region to region, we’re in this sixth wave across the province. And I think that ideally, the response would be at a provincial level as well.”

Ontario will reintroduce mask mandates if the province’s top doctors recommend it, Health Minister Christine Elliott said Monday.

She added the provincial government is “constantly assessing” that date with Moore’s guidance. Wastewater surveillance suggests cases have been on the rise since mid-to-late March.

“Many people choose to continue wearing their masks. That is their own preference,” Elliott said.

“That is something that we will await (the top doctors’) guidance on, and if it’s a requirement that they recommend that we return to mask-wearing we will.”

The scientific director of Ontario’s panel of COVID-19 advisers recently said the latest wastewater data suggest daily cases are around 100,000 to 120,000.

Moore’s update later Monday came on the heels of a report by Public Health Ontario that shows COVID-19 cases, test positivity rates and hospitalizations had gone up since March 21 when the province ended mandatory masking in most indoor spaces.

“The full impact of lifting masking and other measures may not yet be observable given limited PCR testing eligibility and lagging hospitalization data,” the report said.

It proposes bringing back indoor masking and extending masking mandates in high-risk settings as possible elements of a “layered” strategy to mitigate a surge in cases.

With files from The Canadian Press