Raft of new infections could hinder employers' reopening plans
In a press conference on Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford addressed the province’s current rise in COVID cases and said that the province would push forward with its plans to lift all remaining restrictions. Ford said that he was “confident” that Ontario’s health care system could withstand another uptick in infections.
Fielding questions from reporters on whether the government had lifted restrictions too swiftly, the Premier countered that Ontario had actually lifted its mask mandate after many other Canadian provinces.
Over the past few weeks, employers throughout the province have started to pull plans together for a return to work. With mask and vaccine mandates being dropped, safety pros throughout Ontario are deliberating on whether to continue requiring workers to wear masks and mulling over vaccine policies.
Ontario dropped most of its mask mandates on March 21, meaning that many workers were no longer required to wear a mask in their workplace. The mandate remains in place for workers in high-risk settings such as health care and long-term care (LTC), though Ford indicated during the conference that these requirements will be dropped on April 27 as planned.
Despite the Premier’s assurances, a potential new wave could throw a spanner in the works for employers planning on bringing workers back to the office. Speaking to CP24 on Friday morning, infection disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch said that the province seemed to be “on the cusp of a spring wave” with data pointing to potentially higher levels of the virus spreading throughout Ontario.
Bogoch told CP24 that positivity rates have been trending upwards over the last several weeks, and that hospitalizations could potentially begin to rise soon as well. As the province begins to open up again, it seems inevitable that rates will be going up, but government officials seem confident that its successful vaccination campaign could mitigate more serious risks.
