{"id":19063,"date":"2022-05-04T00:08:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T04:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=19063"},"modified":"2022-06-10T00:08:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T04:08:56","slug":"new-mask-mandates-urged-as-niagara-health-reports-five-new-covid-patient-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/new-mask-mandates-urged-as-niagara-health-reports-five-new-covid-patient-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"New mask mandates urged as Niagara Health reports five new COVID patient deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

(May 2, 2022)<\/span><\/p>\n

By: Allan Benner, St. Catharines Standard<\/span><\/p>\n

As COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths continue to increase, a public health legal expert says a lack of action among boards of health \u201cfeels like an abdication or dereliction of duty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe duty of the board (of health) is to prevent disease and control the spread of infectious diseases and that is clearly not happening presently with the actions that are being taken,\u201d said Jacob Shelley, director of the health ethics, law and policy lab at Western University.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shelley joined infectious disease experts Drs. Dick Zoutman and David Fisman for an Ontario Health Coalition media conference Monday to discuss the need for expanded mask mandates at local and provincial levels as the pandemic\u2019s sixth wave continues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Niagara Health, also Monday, reported the deaths of five of its COVID-19 patients during the past three days, with 85 people being treated for the virus including six in intensive care.<\/span><\/p>\n

Niagara Region Public Health reported the death of an individual in the 80-plus age group Monday, increasing the total deaths since the pandemic began to at least 534, with 102 known new cases reported since Saturday, and 1,734 active infections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Niagara acting medical officer of health Dr. Mustafa Hirji said wastewater data indicates \u201cvery high transmission of COVID-19 and no signs of any decrease.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He said wearing masks in public settings \u201ccan help us get this wave under control and protect the people in our community, especially those who are older, with high-risk medical conditions and of marginalized communities who disproportionately suffer severe illness and death from COVID-19.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hirji said he is continuing to urge the province to act, adding an Ontario-wide mandate would have more impact on the spread of illness and ensure more buy-in by the public.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Shelley said it\u2019s the duty of local boards of health to use the powers they have to protect residents.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the absence of a provincewide requirement to wear masks in indoor public settings, he said \u201cboards of health are tasked with the duty to protect the public specifically within their health unit, and local medical officers of health have been invested with considerable power to do that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Zoutman, who chaired Ontario\u2019s Scientific Advisory Committee during the SARS outbreak in 2003, called it extraordinary that \u201cof the 34 health units across our province, not one is issuing a mask protection order.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hirji said \u201cpublic health continues to reserve the option of acting at the local level.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also continuing to have conversations with our counterparts across the province on this matter,\u201d he said, adding he appreciates the support of the Ontario Health Coalition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Zoutman said current variants of Omicron are among \u201cthe most infectious viruses that we know about,\u201d and \u201cthe simple act of wearing a mask is a cheap and extremely effective way to prevent everyone from getting COVID.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed, if we all wore a mask \u2014 a well-fitted manufactured mask, particularly a surgical or N95 mask, while in indoor public spaces \u2014 we could stop the spread of COVID in its tracks,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cImagine that. No more waves of COVID.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fisman, a University of Toronto public health professor, said if mask mandates had been maintained \u201cwe would not have had exponential growth what we\u2019re experiencing now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve known for over a year now that masks are profoundly impactful in terms of COVID-19 transmission in schools,\u201d said Fisman, who served on the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown the protection offered by properly worn N95 masks \u201cis actually equivalent to our high-end estimates for vaccine efficacy before Omicron emerged.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t replace vaccines but when you have the two of them together you get synergy. We also know that masks, beyond protecting the wearer, you get bi-directional protection from masks,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all in the same boat here and it\u2019s in all of our best interests to patch the holes to keep it from sinking. The easiest \u2026 the cheapest patch that we have is one that we\u2019ve previously implemented successfully in Ontario, that\u2019s simple straightforward indoor masking requirements that for whatever reason the province chose to get rid of, just as the BA.2 variant of Omicron was beginning to replace BA.1,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zoutman recommended against wearing cloth masks, saying they are not as effective at preventing the spread of infection as surgical or N95 mask.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe think these masks should be made freely available to everyone if you can\u2019t afford to buy one,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although waves of infection still occurred at times when mask mandates were in place, Zoutman blamed it on the use of ineffective cloth masks as well as incomplete use of surgical or N95 masks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we wear those high-quality products consistently and persistently in indoor spaces, we will see a very different result,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Link to original article<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(May 2, 2022) By: Allan Benner, St. Catharines Standard As COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths continue to increase, a public health legal expert says a lack of action among boards of health \u201cfeels like an abdication or dereliction of duty.\u201d \u201cThe duty of the board (of health) is to prevent disease and control the spread of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNew mask mandates urged as Niagara Health reports five new COVID patient deaths - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(May 2, 2022) By: Allan Benner, St. Catharines Standard As COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths continue to increase, a public health legal expert says a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/new-mask-mandates-urged-as-niagara-health-reports-five-new-covid-patient-deaths\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New mask mandates urged as Niagara Health reports five new COVID patient deaths - 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