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Coronavirus

    • Is it too early to lift mask mandates? The head of Ontario's COVID-19 science table thinks so

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    In light of the announcement that Ontario will lift most mask mandates for indoor settings on March 21, the head of the province鈥檚 COVID-19 science table is weighing in on whether the move makes sense.

    Dr. Peter Juni, director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Table, told 愛污传媒 Channel on Wednesday that it seems too early to be sure we can safely lift mask mandates.

    鈥淚 would like to follow the data,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 right now, it鈥檚 too early to already see the impact of the last reopening step which happened first of March. So I would have preferred 鈥 but that鈥檚 how I鈥檓 conditioned as a scientist 鈥 to accumulate about 10 days more of data, and then see, do we remain stable after the last reopening step. If yes, let鈥檚 do the next one, if no, let鈥檚 wait for a moment.鈥

    On March 1, Ontario officially ceased its vaccine mandates that required businesses such as restaurants to require proof of vaccination to use their indoor facilities.

    In order to truly see if the end of vaccine mandates impacted case levels in Ontario, or whether Ontario cases were unaffected, we would need to wait around two weeks after March 1st, Juni pointed out. This is one of the reasons that feel the removal of mask mandates in the province is premature. 

    Juni acknowledged that reopening steps that have unfolded since January, such as the reopening of schools have occurred without cases rising, which is a positive indicator.

    鈥淲e saw that the [previous] reopening steps actually worked and we stayed stable,鈥 he said.

    But in terms of whether removing vaccine mandates will result in more cases or not, 鈥渞ight now, it鈥檚 too early to tell,鈥 he said.

    鈥淚 personally would have preferred to wait about 10 days to two weeks to come up with a decision [on mask mandates], and this would also allowed us to see what the experience of Quebec will be with their lifting of mask mandates in schools.鈥

    He said that the overall data that they have 鈥済ives me quite some confidence鈥 but that it鈥檚 the lack of certainty that keeps him from endorsing the move fully.

    鈥淲e鈥檙e still stable, and I would just much prefer that we keep it that way, that we don鈥檛 start to see an uptick of cases followed by hospital occupancy,鈥 he said.

    He added that if there is a lift in cases in response to any of these reopening measures, it is 鈥渉ighly unlikely that this will be at the same level of what we saw in December."

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