TORONTO – From  March 21 goodbye to masks, quarantine for people who came into contact with a Covid-19 infected person and stop the screening requirements in most situations. 

After two years – despite the fact that Covid is still not just a bad memory – Ontario will end the obligation to wear masks in most indoor public environments including schools.

This was announced yesterday during a press conference by Ontario Chief Medical Officer Kieran Moore. An announcement defined by the government as “the update of Ontario’s plan to live with and manage Covid-19”. “Given the continuous improvements Ontario will remove the requirement of mandatory masks – said Moore – now we are learning to manage and live with Covid-19 in the long, this requires the transition to a more balanced response to the pandemic”.

Public transport users and all patients, residents, visitors and staff of hospitals, prisons and the long-term care system will be required to wear masks until at least April 27.

From March 21, the day students return to school after March Break, the symptom screening requirement that parents are required to complete every day before accompanying their children to school will disappear.

Other requirements currently in place in schools such as grouping will end, but Health Ministry officials have said supplies of PPE and rapid antigen tests will continue to flow to schools.

In practice, from March 21 the mask will no longer be mandatory but those who do not feel comfortable in removing it can safely continue to wear it. “I know a lot of people don’t want to wear them. It will be up to the people of Ontario to decide whether to wear masks or not – said Prime Minister Doug Ford in Brantford when a journalist asked him about the changes – but we must move forward, people are exhausted and even children in classrooms can no longer “.

The rules on self-isolation in case of exposure to the virus also change. Soon, anyone who has been exposed to Covid-19 outside of their family, regardless of vaccination status, will not need to self-isolate. Instead, he will be required to wear a mask when he is not at home and refrain from public activities “where the removal of the mask would be necessary” for 10 days, not visit anyone at high risk of serious consequences or attend a place such as a hospital for 10 days.

Those who have come into contact with the virus through a member of their family, if they are 18 years old and have received the booster dose no longer need to self-isolate as well as those who are under 18 years old and are fully vaccinated or who have recovered from a Covid-19 infection in the last 90 days do not have to observe quarantine. Any unvaccinated person who comes into contact with someone infected at home must instead isolate themselves.

Other restrictions will be removed next month. The province’s Reopening Ontario Act and all related emergency measures, including those requiring mask use throughout the hospital sector, will expire on April 27.

Toronto, on the recommendation of the city’s Medical Officer of Health Eileen de Villa, is also determined to follow the province and eliminate the mask requirement in most facilities on March 21.

But victory must not yet be sung. The province is still detecting dozens of Covid-19 deaths per week, although the death rate has declined from the peak at the end of January. Yesterday there were 751 people hospitalized, 241 of whom were admitted to intensive care units while 27 died. On the other hand, 1,947 infections have been confirmed by laboratories.

He is not at all convinced that the lifting of mandatory masks is the right decision by UHN infectious disease specialist Isaac Bogoch. Going with lead feet, he says, would be better. “Given the situation in Ontario it would make sense to continue wearing masks indoors – said Dr. Bogoch – the data in our possession, albeit limited, on the spread of the virus in the province suggest that the decline in cases has stopped recently. Instead of seeing them plummet, we are actually witnessing a plateau in infections and hospitalizations. Before starting to eliminate the masks it would be good to see a sustained downward trajectory”.