Public health mandates could return, Tam warns, but favours lighter touch in future
Posted February 25, 2022 9:38 am.
Last Updated February 25, 2022 10:59 am.
Canada’s chief public health officer says governments should be prepared to bring back public health measures in case of another serious variant of COVID-19.
Several provinces have begun to scale back on mandates for vaccines and masks, signalling a return to normalcy now that the Omicron wave is waning.
Dr. Theresa Tam says she hopes Canada is past the pandemic crisis and is now in a transition phase, headed toward recovery.
However, she notes the future is still uncertain when it comes to the possibility of a new or worse variant than what we’ve already experienced.
“Uncertain doesn’t mean we don’t have the ability to be ready and be able to manage the resurgences with less societal impact. And, as I said, we need to be ready for the fall in case we need to up our game again,” she said Friday.
Tam adds Canada must still be ready to bring some public health measures back if cases begin to shoot up again.
“I don’t know exactly what policies may need to be reinstituted but I know there’ll be a big effort to reduce the heavier sort of restrictive measures. But maybe reinstitute less heavy measures like mask requirements in certain settings. And, of course, we are trying to look at the vaccination strategy going forward as well,” she explained.
