FACE MASK DEBATE HEATS UP
Calgary physicians want the federal and provincial governments to make face coverings compulsory. But Alberta is balking.
A group of Calgary doctors is calling on the provincial and federal governments to make face masks mandatory to slow the recent climb in new COVID-19 cases.
The call comes as Alberta’s number of active novel coronavirus cases hits 512, the highest number since May 26, more than three weeks ago.
“If you have a moderately effective mask, and if 60 to 80 per cent of Albertans are wearing them … that decreases the transmission rate enough that masks alone will have a significant impact on transmission,” said Dr. Joe Vipond, an organizer with the Alberta chapter of the Masks4canada advocacy group. “But the bad news is that, outside of core areas where there’s really bad transmission, we’re just not seeing uptake.”
Dr. Amy Tan, a Calgary physician also advocating for legislation making mask use mandatory, says the province should require their use in three scenarios: indoor spaces outside the home, crowds and public transit.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, said Friday the province considers the use of masks to be an important part of its strategy to combat the coronavirus but said the province has no plans to mandate their use.
“The challenge of deciding whether or not to make something mandatory is determining how effective our strong recommendations are,” Hinshaw said. “We did recently move toward this recommendation and I think it’s too early to determine the impacts of the recommendation.
“We want to give Albertans the opportunity to show that they are taking this seriously, that they are being responsible for their actions and that we are collectively able to prevent the spread.”
Hinshaw announced 46 new COVID -19 cases Friday based on a record-high 8,995 tests, equivalent to about a 0.5 per cent positive rate.
Alberta has now detected a total of 7,625 cases, including 6,961 recoveries and 152 deaths.
Vipond said he worries Alberta will wait too long to legislate rules around mask usage as more businesses start to reopen. He added many of the countries that have had the most success fighting the coronavirus introduced mandatory masking early and said many other jurisdictions, including more than a dozen U.S. states, have introduced rules of their own.
“We now have 122 countries out of 198 countries in the world doing mandatory masking,” Vipond said. “Canada’s kind of last to the mask party.”
California is the latest to mandate mask use in some public settings, with that order coming down Thursday. And on Friday, Via Rail announced that passengers would be required to wear masks.
Hinshaw said while the province is not yet moving to mandate masks, cities are free to do so.
“If a local municipality were to choose to create some of those requirements, for example on transit, that would absolutely be within their purview.”
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said last week he thinks face coverings should be required but said it was a call for provincial health officials to make.
Fuyo Watanabe co-founded the Mask Makers YYC group in March to sew cloth masks for essential workers in Calgary. The group has made and distributed more than 40,000 masks since then, but Watanabe said there has been a significant drop in demand in recent weeks.
“Making masks for people, we can see that the demand is slowing down, and the acceptance of masks in public, people just aren’t wearing masks as frequently,” she said. “Until there is an official mandate, people probably won’t adopt this.”
The urgency for mask use is even greater for at-risk Calgarians like Leona Barclay, who started advocating for face coverings early in the pandemic and says the need for them hasn’t gone away.
“I want this pandemic to go. I cannot see my grandchildren, I cannot travel, and I think mandated masks is the only way,” Barclay said. “It isn’t rocket science.”
As the number of active COVID-19 cases creeps up in Alberta, Hinshaw said there are some bright spots and some areas of concern. Most new cases are coming from known sources, she said, making contact tracing easier, but more cases are emerging from workplaces and funerals. Two recent funerals have 24 cases linked to them, a number that is expected to rise, Hinshaw said.
And more than two weeks after thousands gathered for anti-racism protests in Calgary, Hinshaw said there has yet to be any coronavirus cases linked to the rallies. However, Hinshaw said she “remains concerned about any large gathering where distance is not followed (and) where masking is not used.”
Restaurants and bars also have yet to be linked to any COVID-19 cases since they were allowed to reopen in Alberta, though Hinshaw said that before they were originally forced to close, there were instances where spread was suspected among entire tables of patrons or a staff member passing on the coronavirus to diners.
As of Friday, 39 Albertans were in hospital with the virus, six of whom are receiving treatment in intensive-care units, an increase of five from Thursday.