An infectious-disease doctor from Sarnia who’s been a leading voice on the COVID-19 pandemic while working at one of the province’s hardest-hit hospitals anticipates Ontario’s mask mandate to be lifted in about two to four weeks.
“From a policy standpoint, the mandate, it looks like it’s probably going to drop in mid-March in Ontario – maybe end of March,” Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti said during a recent virtual visit to Sarnia.
Most mandates, including the province’s vaccine passport system, are expected to be lifted Tuesday. But masking will continue at indoor public settings and schools.
But Chakrabarti, who works at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga and has appeared as an expert on various media platforms amid the pandemic, said the province-wide rule on indoor masking is already “well past” its expiry date. The Errol Road elementary school and Northern high school grad hopes once it’s lifted it doesn’t come back.
“That type of stuff I think will hopefully be relegated to the dustbin of history,” he said while appearing as a guest during the Kiwanis Club of Sarnia-Lambton Golden K’s Feb. 22 Zoom-based meeting.
Chakrabarti supported the idea of wearing masks indoors early on.
“I think it was a good thing that we did for the beginning of the pandemic,” he said.
But it’s more of a psychological issue for many people now and doesn’t offer the level of protection people think, he said, pointing to restaurant patrons only wearing them when they walk to the bathroom. But Chakrabarti said he expects Ontario public health officials to still recommend wearing masks indoors even after the mandatory rule is lifted.
The Western University and University of Toronto alumnus also thinks province-wide lockdowns will be tossed in the dustbin.
“I think that the time of using lockdowns, at least in Ontario, is probably not us,” he said.
Chakrabarti said he sees both sides of the vaccine debate, but still encourages everyone to get their two doses.
A total of 79 per cent of the eligible five-plus population in Sarnia-Lambton was fully vaccinated as of the most recent figures from Lambton public health and 48 per cent had three doses. The health unit now only updates its COVID-19 stats Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Bluewater Health reported four of its 11 COVID-positive patients in hospital Sunday were vaccinated and seven were partially or unvaccinated.