Medical experts are calling on Ontario Premier Doug Ford to re-impose masks mandates and hold off on any further loosening of COVID-19 emergency orders because the province is now in the sixth COVID-19 wave..
An estimate of five per cent of Ontarians’ are currently infected with the virus and case counts are expected to rise by more than 100,000 each day, according to the outgoing head of the province’s science advisory table.
Dr. Peter Juni revealed the troubling news to multiple news outlets on April 6, saying the number of people admitted in the hospital with the virus will increase by 40 per cent ever week.
He said based on wastewater analysis, it appears the province has already reached the peak it was in early January.
Juni said case counts are rising as people change their habits and not wear their masks in indoor public settings after precautions were lifted.
COVID statistics in Ontario for April 11 found 1,090 new hospitalizations, an increase of 113 from the day before, and 184 patients in ICU, an increase of 11 from the day previous.
Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said in an April 7 release that masks mandates are needed right now in all indoor settings and also criticized the premier about his response.
“With COVID case counts now skyrocketing, Ontarians’ deserve science, not silence from their provincial government,” he said. “Doug Ford’s Conservatives must stop muzzling the Chief Medical Officer of Health and restore his regular media conferences that ended over a month ago.
“Ford’s Conservatives are still planning to end all mask mandates in long-term care homes and hospitals on April 27th, this is a huge mistake. Mask mandates need to remain until this sixth wave wanes,” he said
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath expressed her concerns about the current state of hospitals across the province.
“Health care workers are exhausted, and becoming infected with COVID at an alarming rate,” she said.
“And every bed taken by a COVID patient is another delay for someone waiting in pain for a surgery,” Horwath said in a written statement. “It’s clear that Doug Ford dropped masks too soon, and we’re all paying the price — no one more so than the people waiting in pain for a surgery or procedure.”
A few things the government could be doing to minimize the impact of Wave 6 instead of pretending it isn’t happening. pic.twitter.com/yJ84PctzUX
— Michael Warner (@drmwarner) April 5, 2022
Dr. Michael Warner, the medical director of critical care at Toronto’s Michael Garron Hospital, claimed the government is “pretending” that the sixth wave isn’t happening.
“The chief medical officer of health for the province is nowhere to be found. I think the average person in the public isn’t really sure what to do,” Warner said in a video message posted on social media on April 5.
Warner said in the clip he wants the government to bring back masking policies for inside essential public spaces, including grocery stores and pharmacies.