The province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health says even if she had the power to, she would not be reintroducing mask mandates at this time.
Jurisdictions across the country have been reintroducing masking as respiratory illnesses spike.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says this province is not seeing the same epidemiology as other areas. Further to that, she says mask mandates are part and parcel of a public health emergency.
She says the evidence isn’t there right now to support a mask mandate, noting that before infringing on people’s rights they need to have the evidence to support doing so with no other recourse to mitigate the risk.
Province to Provide Access to Free Rapid Test Kits
Meanwhile, rapid COVID-19 test kits will soon be more widely available than ever before as the province plans to start distribution of the tests in the coming weeks.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald announced the program yesterday. Tests will be distributed through Canada Post to households across the province. As well, they will be made available at MHA constituency offices and public libraries.
According to Fitzgerald, both the mailed tests and the ones available at other locations will be available between late November and early December.
She says people need to have patience with the process as it’s a “huge scale production.” As well, they are working on other distribution options to ensure ease of access.
