York Region's top doc says province should wait before taking masks off

Medical officer of health Dr. Barry Pakes says impact of other restrictions being lifted on March 1 should be monitored for a month

newmarkettoday.ca
Joseph Quigley
Feb. 25, 2022

While welcoming the province's move to lift most COVID-19 restrictions March 1, York Region’s medical officer of health is advocating for continued masking mandates in indoor settings throughout March.

In a report to York Region council Feb. 24, Dr. Barry Pakes said hospitalizations are stable, and the province’s decision to start lifting mandates is reasonable.

But he said with the possibility of a small spike in cases with capacity limits and vaccine mandates ending, the province should wait until the end of March before it considers removing masking requirements.

“The remaining measures to control the pandemic (after March 1) really do amount to masks ... they remain critically important,” Pakes said. “Calling for masks to be removed, at least in my estimation and many others, would not be wise at that time.”

Indoor masking is one of the only measures remaining in place provincially after capacity limits and proof-of-vaccination requirements end March 1, though businesses can still choose to keep the measures. But other jurisdictions are starting to relax masking requirements, with Alberta lifting them starting March 1.

Pakes said it makes sense to take time to monitor the impact of lifting other restrictions first. He said although hospitalizations have decreased since the peak of the Omicron variant, they are no longer declining significantly and that we are in a "good place, but still a very tenuous one."

Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said he agreed with the approach.

“The lifting of restrictions responsibly should be a gradual process so that you can assess as you go,” Taylor said. “You should resist the temptation to have the lifting of restrictions feel like the first day of Mardi Gras.”

But Vaughan Regional Councillor Gino Rosati said residents are eager to return to normal.

“People are tired. They want to move on,” Rosati said. “We want to get past this virus as soon as possible and get people back to work, back to their normal life, which we had pre-COVID.”

Pakes said there would be very little left for citizens to deal with after March 1.

“The decisions we make as public health specialists... are not only about the medical piece, or the public health piece but are social and political constructs as well,” he said. “It was reasonable to take (vaccination mandates) away now.”

York Region will also begin winding down its COVID-19 mass vaccination clinics, and Pakes said the Newmarket Community Centre clinic would close at the end of the week, though the Ray Twinney Recreation Complex site will stay open.

The region expects to reduce vaccination clinic hours in March but maintain evening and weekend availability, and transition to normal public health operations in late March.

Pakes said it is difficult to know what the future of COVID-19 booster doses might be. But if another one is necessary, he said it would likely next be in fall, with virus transmission typically declining in the warmer months. He said public health would try to plan for that possibility, to make ramping up vaccinations less “frantic” going forward.

But he added it is not certain that more boosters will be necessary.

"We will need to wait for the data to come in.”