COVID-19 Mask Requirements in Ontario will be lifted in most indoor settings on March 21st.
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore made the announcement this morning at Queen’s Park in Toronto.
Starting March 21, masks will no longer be required in schools, restaurants and bars, gyms and movie theatres across the province. Remaining measures in schools, including cohorting ands on-site symptom screening will be removed. Remaining regulatory requirements for businesses are removed, including passive screening and the need to have a COVID-19 safety plan.
The government said individuals can continue to wear a mask after that date if they choose to do so.
Masks and face coverings will still be required in public transit, long-term care homes, retirement homes, health-care settings, shelters and jails until April 27.
The Reopening Ontario Act that allows the government to issue public health directives at the provincial level expire on March 28. A final extension of all the emergency orders in place under the ROA will be in effect for 30 days after that date.
The number of hospitalizations and ICU admissions related to COVID-19 in Ontario have dropped since mid-January and the province said that the peak of the Omicron variant is “behind us” thanks to time-limited public health measures and high vaccination rates.
Dr. Moore has stated many times that we have to “learn to live with Covid.” He said the risk of Covid still exists in the province. Mandates can return in the future and people should be prepared once again resume to wear masks if new variants emerge.
Featured Image Video from TwitterTrueNorthCentre
Ontario's Dr. Keiran Moore announces an end to Ontario's mask mandate on March 21st. pic.twitter.com/Ge65NKzDJJ
— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) March 9, 2022
