Ontario will extend the mandate for masks in selected high-risk indoor locations for at least another month.
The mandatory disguise in these settings was due to expire on April 27th, but the government confirmed on Friday that it would retain its mandate until at least June 11, amid the sixth wave of the pandemic.
Settings where camouflage will continue to be mandatory include retirement homes, doctor’s offices, shelters and care groups that provide care and services to medically and socially vulnerable people.
A full list of settings with mandatory masking can be found here.
“We continue to monitor community activity with the virus in Ontario and want to continue to protect our most vulnerable members of our community,” Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kieran Moore told CTV News Channel on Friday afternoon. “We believe it is reasonable, reasonable and appropriate to continue to defend these environments. So we are extending it by 45 days from April 27 to approximately June 11. At this time, we believe that most of the cases will return to a very low endemic risk in Ontario.
The Ontario COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Table previously suggested that community transmission may have peaked earlier this month, when it was estimated that more than 100,000 Ontario residents became infected each day.
However, hospitalizations are lagging behind and continue to rise, though not at the same rate that Ontario witnessed during the initial Omicron wave in January.
Moore told CTV News Channel that he expects to see the effect of a “small wave” of several recent holidays.
According to him, hospitalizations will probably peak in the next seven to 10 days.
“I absolutely want the people of Ontario to know that this is the peak of activity in Ontario right now,” he said. “We had a significant signal for wastewater last week, it just started to decrease. We are expecting a small wave of the Easter holidays, the Easter holidays, the long weekend that people had. And then the last piece is the impact on the intensive care units. We expect all this great impact to happen in the next seven to 10 days, and then slowly and surely the risk will decrease by the end of May.
The extension comes after Moore told CP24 last week that the province plans to keep the mask mandates in place for at least another month, given the increase in COVID-19 infections in the province.
Mandates for masks in other public indoor spaces, including schools and shops, were lifted on March 21, and Moore said he did not expect to have to reintroduce mandatory camouflage in those conditions.
ONTARIO TO PROVIDE TREATMENT OF EVUSHELD COVID-19
The province also announced on Friday that it will soon receive deliveries of Evusheld for treatment with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 antibodies and will start administering it to immunocompromised individuals in the coming weeks.
Evushold is given in two single-dose injections and provides protection against the virus for up to six months.
Treatment will be available to individuals at the highest risk of severe COVID-19 outcome, including:
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recipients of transplanted solid organs;
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recipients of transplanted stem cells;
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recipients of CAR-T therapy; and
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other patients with haematological cancer undergoing treatment.
The province says it expects to receive its first shipment in late April and subsequent shipments in May and June.
Evushold was approved by Health Canada on April 14.
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