There will be no mask mandate, just a general recommendation to wear a mask, especially in crowded conditions, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the process publicly. The Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, previously said this fall and winter would see a resurgence of respiratory illnesses and would recommend a mask in certain indoor spaces if hospitals start canceling surgeries to deal with a surge of patients. Meanwhile, medical officials are increasingly urging the public to take cover. Children’s hospitals across the province are already overwhelmed with young patients flooding emergency departments, pediatric wards and intensive care units. The CEO of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto wants Ontarians to do three things: wear masks, get flu and COVID-19 shots and stay away from work, family and friends when sick . “I would certainly encourage universal masking right now, there’s no doubt it would help,” said Dr. Ronald Cohn. The hospital announced Friday that it will limit surgeries to reassign staff in those areas, Cohn added. “It’s extremely busy and while I recognize that words like crisis and historic and even unprecedented have gone from signal to noise over the last two and a half years, we are seeing historic volumes of children in our emergency rooms, our regular pediatric wards and our ICUs,” he said. Cohn in an interview. The children coming in are very sick, he said, noting that 38 children in the hospital’s ICU are currently on ventilators. “So far no one has died, thank God,” Cohn said. But the cancellation of surgeries is a big blow to children, their families and health workers. “We have had to significantly reduce all scheduled non-life-saving or very urgent surgeries in order to create capacity for children who either need these very urgent life-saving procedures or need other life-saving ICU and pediatric admissions. wards,” he said. “This is devastating for families who have already waited so long. But it’s important for people to know how incredibly morally distressing this is for all of us as healthcare professionals as well.” The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa opened a second pediatric ICU and had to cancel surgeries to reassign healthcare workers to staff the new space. The Ontario Hospital Association is also asking Ontarians to wear masks indoors and get up-to-date vaccines for COVID-19 and flu. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on November 12, 2022.
