The provincial mask mandate for health care settings and public transit will expire on Saturday.
However, if you visit Lakeridge Health hospitals and community sites, including their long-term care home, Lakeridge Gardens, you will have to wear a mask.
Lakeridge Health says the mask requirement will be in place for the foreseeable future.
The Ontario Hospital Association recommended the province extend the order requiring the use of masks in hospital settings instead of letting it expire.
Association head Anthony Dale says that would have been appropriate as vulnerable people are at heightened risk of infection, even if overall COVID-19 hospitalizations are declining.
The scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 advisory group says he also would have preferred an extension in high-risk settings.
Doctor Fahad Razak says there are still real signs of strain in the health-care system, not just in terms of patient volumes, but also with health-care worker burnout and shortages.
Razak says extending mask mandates a bit longer would give the health-care system more time to get through a difficult period.
