'We're not going back to 2020': Eastern Ontario doc on mask recommendation

One of eastern Ontario’s top doctors says a coming mask recommendation from the province’s chief medical officer of health is one of the strongest moves outside of a mandate to help curb the spread of viruses in the community, but a mandate has not been ruled out completely.

Ontario CMOH Dr. Kieran Moore is expected to announce Monday a recommendation for Ontarians to wear masks in public settings to help curb the spread of numerous respiratory viruses, including COVID-19, influenza, and RSV, which are leading to overwhelmed children’s hospitals.

However, Moore is not expected to announce a government mandate to require mask use anywhere in the province.

Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, the medical officer of health for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s “CFRA Live with Andrew Pinsent” on Sunday that a mandate has not been ruled out, but he doesn’t believe it would be necessary right now.

“In terms of a mandate, that would be the next step,” he said. “The reason that I’m a bit hesitant at this point to instill a mandate is, first of all, if you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it for everybody, you’re not going to just say schools. Number two, we are in a different position than we were when we first instigated a mandate.”

Roumeliotis said COVID-19 treatments and the vaccines have gotten the virus under a level of control that wasn’t seen in 2020 when the pandemic began.

“We also recognize that mandates put a strain on businesses and others. I’m not saying a mandate won’t happen, but we need to take a more careful approach because it does cause a lot of issues,” he said. “Understand that we’re not going back to 2020. I think a lot of people are fed up with the virus, fed up with these restrictions, and worried that we’re going back to those restrictions. This is a temporary thing people can do voluntarily to help our most vulnerable, offset overloading our hospitals and decrease the amount of people getting sick.”

Roumeliotis added that even an imperfect uptake of voluntary masking among the population can help reduce transmission of respiratory illnesses and ease the burden on the health-care system.

“If we don’t get everybody to mask voluntarily—even if we get 60 to 70 per cent of the population to mask up, what you’re trying to do is decrease the amount of circulating virus out there,” he said. “I can’t give you a higher recommendation without mandating it. Next step would be mandating it, which we’d like to avoid, but we’re not ruling it out.”

Ottawa's medical officer of health, Dr. Vera Etches, last week said she wrote to the provincial government to encourage widespread mask use and also did not rule out the possibility of a mandate in the future.

Children’s hospitals across Ontario are facing a surge of patients in emergency departments and intensive care. CHEO recently opened a second ICU to meet the demand. The Ontario Hospital Association is asking citizens to wear masks indoors and to get up-to-date vaccinations for COVID-19 and influenza.

Roumeliotis is also urging parents to keep the children home if they’re sick as much as possible.