Ontario’s chief medical officer ‘strongly recommends’ residents mask in indoor settings

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health stops just short of a mask mandate as he “strongly recommends” that residents mask up in all indoor public settings.

Dr. Kieran Moore made the recommendation today as part of an update on the pediatric respiratory virus season.

Ontarians are encouraged to mask around young children, especially in school and child-care settings, as kids’ hospitals are overwhelmed by a massive influx of very sick patients in recent weeks and are operating over capacity.

Some major children’s hospitals have been forced to cancel non-urgent surgeries in order to redeploy staff to the emergency department and intensive care units.

READ MORE: Flu shots now available for residents across Ontario

Moore says adults can transmit respiratory viruses to kids, and young children under the age of five are the most susceptible.

“I’m very concerned that children are being admitted to our hospitals, in our intensive care units, principally 4 and under, that can not mask,” Moore said. “So everyone around them, the parent, the sibling, the grandparent, I’m urging them to protect the most vulnerable of us, our children, by adhering to all the layers of protection.”

The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario has opened a second pediatric ICU and children 14 and older needing critical care are being sent to adult ICUs.

In order to manage the intense impact on the health system, government officials say experts have been meeting daily and emergency departments are being instructed to plan for an “extreme surge.”