During his first public appearance in over a month, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health said the province will not be reinstating a mask mandate — at least not yet — in indoor public spaces including schools.
At a media briefing at Queen’s Park on Monday (April 11), Dr. Kieran Moore said it is “clear” Ontario is in the sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by the omicron B.A2 subvariant.
“In the last few weeks, we have seen an increase in the per cent positivity, an upward trend in wastewater surveillance, and a rise in hospitalizations,” he said. “These trends are likely to continue for the next several weeks.”
While he issued a “strong recommendation” for Ontarians to continue wearing a well-fitted, three-layer face mask in all public indoor settings, he said the province has no immediate plans to reinstate a mask mandate.
“While we will not be reinstating a broad mask mandate at this time, we should all be prepared that we may need to resume a requirement for mask wearing in indoor public spaces if a new variant of concern emerges, a threat to our health care system, or potentially during the winter months when COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses are likely to circulate again.”
Instead, Dr. Moore said it is “critical to stay up to date with your vaccination” by receiving all recommended doses, including booster doses if eligible.
“It’s your best defence against severe illness, hospitalization, and death,” he said. “Booster doses save lives.”
Dr. Moore also encouraged Ontarians to determine whether they are eligible for assessment for antiviral treatments, including the oral antiviral Paxlovid, by visiting ontario.ca/antiviralscreener.
Shortly before Dr. Moore began his media briefing, the Ontario government announced it is expanding eligibility for COVID-19 antiviral treatments and PCR testing to more high-risk individuals, including those 18 and over who are immunocompromised, those 70 and over, those 60 and over who have had fewer than three vaccine doses, and those 18 and over ho have had fewer than three vaccine doses and at least one risk condition, such as a chronic medical condition.
After Dr. Moore finished his statement at the media briefing, a reporter questioned why he had not spoken publicly earlier during the sixth wave.
“At my last press conference I told you I’d come out if there was an issue — the purpose today is to remind all Ontarians that they are all eligible for boosters,” he said. “The purpose of coming out today is just to reiterate, yes, we’re in the sixth wave, yes, we will see a rise in admissions to hospital and to the intensive care unit, but as always we have tools that can mitigate that and prevent it for all Ontarians, and to call once again for people to come forward and get immunized.”
When the reporter repeated his question, asking “Is this the last we’re going to see of you for another month?”, Dr. Moore said it was the responsibility of all health care leaders to disseminate information.
“If I have new messaging of risk to any of the citizens of Ontarians, I will absolutely come out,” he said. “We share all of our key messaging — we did this last week — with all of our local public health agencies, all of our health system leaders, as well as our hospital leadership.”
As for the remaining mask mandate in high-risk settings — in hospitals and other health care settings, long-term care homes and retirement homes, congregate settings, and public transit — which is scheduled to be lifted on April 27, Dr. Moore said the province is considering maintaining it until the middle or end of May.
“We’ll present that to government and the government will make the final decision but, to me, that makes tremendous sense to maintain it,” he said.
