TORONTO – Extending the mask mandate, which was due to expire tomorrow, until June 11 is not enough. The controversy, following the announcement of the Ontario government, was not long in coming because “this decision is not able to mitigate this sixth wave of Covid-19”. More needs to be done, in essence. 

The rising infections – according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Health, there are now 1,455 people hospitalized due to Covid, almost 12% more than in the same period last week – following the relaxation of almost all restrictions push many experts to point the finger at Ford. And among them there is for example Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), who certainly does not send them to say. The province, he says, last month was “irresponsible” in lifting the mask requirement in most interior spaces, including schools and retail stores. Grinspun would now like to see that the obligation to wear a mask remains in place until public health indicators have “significantly” improved. “For us improved nurses it means that hospitalizations do not increase, which they are doing, it means that surgeries are not postponed and canceled, which is happening, it means that staff do not continue to get sick more and more as it is happening – said Grinspun – it also means that emergency rooms do not close because they cannot take care of people because they do not have staff, which they are doing.”

The request made last month to the government by the RNAO to continue to impose the use of masks in all indoor environments to prevent an increase in Covid cases did not hit the mark. “We have enough beds in our hospitals, we have a mostly vaccinated population and now we also have antiviral drugs, so at the moment it doesn’t seem necessary to reimpose masks at all,” Health Minister Christine Elliott cut short.
“We are happy to see that the government has extended the use of masks in facilities at risk, this decision reinforces the messages we try to convey in our community about the importance of doing so many small things in the right way, including wearing masks in environments like ours – added the president and CEO of Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance – in any case our hospital system had already planned to continue to enforce the use of the mask”.