Health Minister Christian Dube said on Sunday that interim public health director Luc Boileau would announce on Tuesday. “We just talked about it an hour ago and it ends with all the regional health authorities,” Dube said. The county had hoped to remove the mask from the public on April 15, but a flare-up of the COVID-19 virus, mainly the BA.2 variant, has forced public health officials to reconsider. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Matthew Owton said the decision should be considered if the benefits of using a mask outweigh the harms. “There is a lot of science to support that coverage works,” he said. “Especially in the current context that we have a lot of diseases out there, the benefits are very, very large and the harms are very negligible. So, in my opinion, it is a very easy, simple decision.” Across the country, mask orders have all been lifted or will take effect later this week. As of Thursday, Quebec will be the only place in Canada where masks are mandatory. Oughton said that despite Omicron’s contagious subtraction, the days of lockdowns and closure are probably behind us. However, he said, the masks are worth the inconvenience they can cause to some. “Much of what is leading to the current increase in cases in Ontario is not so much being BA.2 instead of BA.1, but it is the easing of some of these NPIs, including the easing of mask requirements,” Oughton said. . Oughton added that governments should continue to use tools that have the least disadvantages and the most benefits, such as masks and vaccines. “Right now, if you look at the recent headlines, we are busy closing vaccination clinics. This is the last thing we need to do,” he said. “We still have almost half of our population in need of this third installment and we really need to promote it as one of the major interventions.”
