Ontario’s chief medical officer of health is urging people to get vaccinated and wear masks but is not recommending a mask mandate for now.
Despite growing calls for him to bring back province-wide mask mandates to protect vulnerable children, Dr. Kieran Moore stuck with public education about the “triple threat” of influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus and strong recommendations about masking, vaccination and other public health measures. He said he is assessing the situation daily and hasn’t ruled out mask mandates.Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Ottawa SUN, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
“I think people have become so accustomed to not wearing masks that without a mandate they are not going to,” said Dr. Miriam Mottiar, an Ottawa anesthesiologist and palliative care doctor who is a mother to school-aged children and a seven-month old baby. “I think we are at a point that without mask mandate a child is going to die.”
uOttawa epidemiologist Raywat Deonandan, who is the father of a toddler, said by the time viruses get into the home “it is too late”. Universal masking slows spread in the community, even if compliance isn’t perfect. Moore said provincial officials are discussing mandatory masking, especially in day cares, if the situation continues to worsen, but noted that he doesn’t have authority to institute mandatory masking in schools.Meanwhile, the province is further expanding the capacity of pediatric intensive care units to 150 per cent of the current capacity, he said.
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