TORONTO – The requirement to wear masks in Ontario’s risky facilities, which was due to expire on April 27, will remain in place at least until June 11. The restriction therefore still remains valid in nursing homes, doctors’ offices, reception centres and care facilities that provide care and services to medically and socially vulnerable people.
The government’s decision was announced by Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore.” Covid-19 continues to be very active throughout Ontario, we want to continue to protect the most fragile members of our community – said Moore – we believe it is prudent, reasonable and appropriate to continue to protect certain structures. So we extend the mask obligation for another 45 days after April 27″.
Already last week Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he would have no problem extending the mask requirement beyond the end of April at the request of Dr. Moore. And, finally, to consider positive the decision to extend the use of masks is also the mayor of Toronto John Tory. “I think most people think wearing a mask is a prudent thing to do. On the means of transport of the TTC it can be seen how people willingly follow this practice”.
Prudence, when infections rise considerably, is a must. Covid is still here, and according to experts it does not seem willing to leave soon. According to the director of the Ontario Science Advisory Table Peter Juni, a wave of Covid-19 is beautiful and ready for the autumn after the truce scheduled in the summer. “The challenge – said Juni – will come with the winter season and with immunity against infections that will begin to decrease but will be different from before because almost all of us will have had some type of exposure to the virus”.
Juni suspects that Canadians aged 50 and over will need to receive another booster dose to protect themselves from serious infections that would require hospitalization. “A mass vaccination campaign may be necessary for all those over 17 years old as well as we may have to wear masks indoors for a few months,” warns the director of the Ontario Science Advisory Table.
In Canada, the United States and Europe, epidemiologists agree that Covid will return to be felt around October, the only unknown is how it will do it: will it be an important wave or more week than the previous ones of the same period? The virologist Andrea Crisanti, like other scientists, defines as “unlikely” the possibility that next autumn a virulent variant as Delta may emerge. “This possibility cannot be excluded a priori, but I believe that it is quite rare, because the evolution of virulence generally follows quite precise rules, in the sense that, if a microorganism does not need to create damage and therefore disease to spread, in general, it tends to evolve towards a less dangerous form,” said the full professor of microbiology at the University of Padua.