‘Callous, thoughtless’ end to pandemic
Province to end restrictions, but masks still urged by health and science leaders
A plea for Hamiltonians to continue wearing masks despite mandates ending in most Ontario settings by March 21 has come from hospital leaders and members of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.
“Public health modelling predicts we’ll see another increase in COVID hospitalizations between now and May,” Rob MacIsaac, CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS), tweeted Wednesday. “We’re not out of the woods yet. Please get vaccinated, wear a good mask, and isolate if you’re sick, to keep our patients and staff safe.”
Schools were not among the highrisk settings keeping masks until April 27, when all remaining pandemic measures lift. Instead, it’s transit, seniors’ homes, health-care settings, jails, shelters and congregate living.
“Hastily dropping masks in schools ... seems like such a callous, thoughtless ‘end’ to the pandemic,” tweeted Dr. Menaka Pai, a Hamilton member of the science table.
Hamilton has its own mask bylaw and it’s not clear if it will be removed to coincide with Ontario lifting the mandate. It’s under review, said Dr. Ninh Tran, an associate medical officer of health.
“We are cautiously optimistic about the province’s planned easing of public health measures across Ontario in the weeks ahead,” said Tran. But he also noted that the risk of transmission is anticipated to remain high through April.
“Removing the mask mandate does not mean the risk is gone,” said
Hamilton has its own mask bylaw and it’s not clear if it will be removed to coincide with Ontario lifting the mandate
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore. “We are now learning to live with and manage COVID-19 for the long term.”
But the changes are too soon after the latest phase of reopening March 1, said Dr. Peter Jüni, scientific director of the table. “We haven’t accumulated enough data to understand the impact of the last reopening step to make a decision right now,” said Jüni. “I personally don’t like to make decisions blindly.”
Jüni says wastewater surveillance shows Ontario still has 15,000 to 20,000 new COVID cases a day. That concern was echoed by epidemiologist Ahmed Al-Jaishi, who has been analyzing Ontario’s pandemic trends.
“New cases picking up steam,” Al-Jaishi tweeted while pointing to high test-positivity, continued strain in hospitals and a large number of deaths from Omicron in 2022.
The other unknown is the fallout from March break next week, especially considering there are fewer restrictions on he holiday than at any other me in the pandemic. “Everybody can do the right thing,” said Jüni. “If you want to contribute to keep this under control, get vaccinated and don’t fundamentally change your behaviour yet. Wait a bit longer until the weather gets better or we see clearly in wastewater case counts go down more.”
Like Jüni, McMaster Children’s Hospital had advocated for masking to stay in place until at least two weeks after March break. Other pediatric hospitals and health-care organizations had done the same.
Instead, masks will drop on the first day kids return to school.
“My guess is many parents on the playground, and many kids and staff in the classrooms, will keep masking,” tweeted Pai, while urging “kindness.”
The Children’s Health Coalition, which includes McMaster, encouraged “everyone to continue masking in schools,” in a statement Wednesday.
“Adherence to these measures have allowed schools to stay open,” said the coalition. “As a group whose commitment is to the health and well-being of children, we all want the pandemic to be a memory for our kids, not part of their day-tokd here yet.”
Pai pointed out that masks are an “easy” way to protect kids young than age five who can't , just one in two kids age five to 11 has had a COVID shot. Among youth age 12 to 17, one in 10 has had a booster shot.
“My heart is breaking a bit,” tweeted Pai.
“I wish our government could do simple things to keep our little people, our vulnerable people, our marginalized people safe.”
Premier Doug Ford defended ending pandemic restrictions, saying, “We have to move forward from this. People are exhausted.”
Moore pointed to vaccines, new therapies available for COVID and the peak of Omicron as the basis for the move. Although, he acknowledged he will continue to wear a mask himself after March 21 in crowded indoor settings.
“It is now a choice not a mandate,” he said. “You can’t mandate masking forever.”
Moore strongly suggested those most vulnerable to COVID should continue wearing masks and asked Ontarians to be respectful and kind.
“I would like us to be tolerant of people’s individual choices and to realize we’re not finished with this pandemic,” said Moore. “We should all be prepared that we may need to resume mask wearing if a new variant of concern emerges or potentially during the winter months.”
Some organizations say they’re keeping masking in place.
“Ontarians can expect that masking will be required within hospital settings for some time,” Anthony Dale, CEO of the Ontario Hospital Associatt “Ontario’s ion said in a statement. health-care system is still experiencing high levels of occupancy ... and COVID-19 remains a volatile and unpredictable disease.”
The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario called masks one of the most important defences against the virus, and said dropping the mandate was ill-conceived, premature and not based on science.