Soon, Ontario residents will have even fewer COVID-19 restrictions to follow, as the province prepares to lift most mask mandates on Monday.
Huron Perth’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Miriam Klassen, says the province is now in “a transition period”.
“Ontario is now focusing on living with and managing COVID-19, it is by no means gone. This means that businesses, organizations, and individuals must make their own decisions on how best to protect themselves, their employees, and their customers from COVID-19.”
Hospitals in Stratford, St. Marys, Clinton and Seaforth will not be dropping mask mandates or proof-of-vaccination requirements.
Chief Executive of the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, Andrew Williams, says safety continues to be their number one priority.
“We’re going to continue to employ these [safety] measures, and we just simply urge everybody to be respectful of that, and when they come into the organizations, to not take out their frustrations on staff. We are seeing a slight increase in that level of disagreement, which is unfortunate.”
Ontario announced that most mask requirements will be dropped as of March 21st, with remaining mandates for higher risk settings such as long-term care, transit, and hospitals ending April 27th.
Also, a limited supply of the new protein-based COVID-19 vaccine, recently approved by Health Canada, will soon be available in Huron Perth.
Dr. Klassen says eligible adults can call Huron Perth Public Health to be added to a waitlist.
“Novavax has been approved by Health Canada for adults 18 and older who have not received any doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, who have experienced an allergic reaction to a previous dose of an MRNA vaccine, or have some other conflict with an MRNA vaccine.”
Novavax Inc.’s vaccine was cleared for use in Canada last month, and was the fifth vaccine approved.
