Ontario’s chief medical officer of health is “strongly recommending” everyone wear masks in all indoor public settings, including schools and child-care centres.
But Dr. Kieran Moore is stopping short of imposing a mask mandate.
Dr. Moore made the recommendation this morning as part of an update on the pediatric respiratory virus season, which has seen kids’ hospitals overwhelmed in recent weeks by a massive influx of very sick patients.
Moore says adults can transmit respiratory viruses to kids, and young children under the age of five are the most susceptible.
Some major children’s hospitals have had to cancel non-urgent surgeries in order to redeploy staff to the emergency department and intensive care units that are operating over capacity.
St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital CEO Karen Davies says because of the spike in respiratory cases the hospital is experiencing a high number of staff who are off sick.
Written by Ian McCallum
