Masking rules set to continue at Thunder Bay hospital, despite Ontario lifting provincial mandate
CBC
Masks will remain mandatory at the Thunder Bay Health Sciences Centre, despite a directive from Ontario's top public health official that most remaining mask requirements will expire on Saturday.
Hospital spokesperson Marcello Bernardo confirmed in a statement that mask requirements for patients and visitors will remain in place, "for the foreseeable future" and COVID-19 screening at the hospital entrance will also continue.
"While COVID-related hospitalizations and critical illness are declining, vulnerable populations continue to be at heightened risk of infection," Bernardo wrote in the statement. "We serve the most vulnerable of our community, and remain committed to doing everything possible to keep patients and staff safe, including maintaining best practices in infection, prevention, and control."
On June 8, the provincial Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore cited high vaccination rates and improving COVID-19 infection figures as a justification for lifting the remaining mask restrictions.
Masks will still be required in all Ontario long-term care homes. Moore has shifted mask requirements to recommendations in shelters and group homes. Those managing hospitals, medical clinics, and mass transit systems can choose to continue or discontinue mask mandates.
Thunder Bay District Health Unit medical officer of health Janet DeMille wasn't available Thursday to comment on whether she has issued any recommendation to area hospitals as to whether they should continue to require masking.
A statement from health unit spokesperson Lance Dyll said DeMille would be, "reviewing the provincial communication and guidelines that are expected to be released and anticipates being in alignment with that."
Officials in Thunder Bay are not the only local decision-makers to continue mask mandates beyond Saturday. Hospitals in cities like Hamilton, London and Waterloo have all announced they will continue to require masks going forward.
Meanwhile, Dr. Fahad Razak, the new scientific director of Ontario's COVID-19 science advisory table, told CBC Radio's Metro Morning the provincial requirement could have been extended for at least four more weeks to help relieve some of the pressure on hospitals that will now have to enforce their own mask rules.
"I'm heartened to see many hospitals have already announced that they will continue to require them," Razak said Thursday. "I suspect you'll see most institutions will require it."
Local First Nations leaders make decisions regarding public health measures in far north, fly-in communities. Three of the 33 fly-in First Nations in the Sioux Lookout First Nation Health Authority (SLFNHA) catchment area are currently experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks and there are still 378 active cases across the region.
Emily Paterson is SLFNHA's director of approaches to community well-being. She says a mask is a simple intervention that can make a difference in ebbing the "quite high" number of active COVID cases.
"We haven't changed our mask recommendation, even when other mask mandates went earlier in the province. We'll continue to do that," Paterson says. "We'll also continue to recommend that when community members leave their communities, they wear masks in public settings in an effort not to bring COVID back into the community."
For the second time in just over a year, the Town of Three Rivers had to limit access to a public meeting after threats of violence.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) is accusing the province’s negotiating body of “bad-faith bargaining” regarding its commitment to hiring more teachers.
The man behind micro-shelters once placed in Toronto's St. James Park is continuing his work even after the city removed them — and for one unhoused man, it's made all the difference.
A phone call where the person on the other end can’t hear a word you're saying — that’s what Nathalie-Isabelle Richard says it's like trying to call someone in Iqaluit these days.
Ottawa will provide an additional $1.17 billion to Alberta in order to extend the federal-provincial subsidized child-care program for another year.
Toronto has cancelled an automated traffic enforcement pilot intended to help fight congestion in the wake of the provincial government’s ban on speed cameras in Ontario, CBC Toronto has learned.
Some Tahltan First Nation members in northern B.C. are raising concerns about the timing of an “upfront payment” from a mining company ahead of a crucial vote on the Eskay Creek mine.
To illustrate the incredible upheaval that federal politics in Canada has experienced over the last 12 months, one could do worse than to simply look at the last two Liberal caucus holiday parties.
Alberta’s auditor general says he was denied information he requested from the Department of Municipal Affairs while attempting to assess flood mitigation systems.
Flooding in B.C.'s Fraser Valley, caused by overflow from the Nooksack River in Washington state, is expected to reach its peak Friday, as highways and some schools remain closed and residents assess the damage.
Three Scottish men accused in the 2023 killing of Ontario restaurant owner Sharif Rahman after a dispute over an unpaid bill appeared in an Owen Sound court Friday morning after their extradition to Canada.
A provincially appointed supervisor has fired the director of education at Ontario's largest school board, amid a shakeup of board governance by the education minister.
A Calgary Transit shuttle bus went up in flames Friday morning.