Lifting mask mandate in Manitoba 'doesn't make any sense,' doctor says

The provincial government's decision to lift the mask mandate as part of a broader loosening of COVID-19 health restrictions "doesn't make any sense," one Manitoba doctor says.

On Tuesday, Premier Brian Pallister and Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, announced a number of relaxed public health guidelines will take effect this Saturday.

Among the changes, masks will no longer be required in indoor public places, and seating in restaurants for unvaccinated people will no longer be limited to those from one household.

Dr. Glen Drobot, an internal medicine physician at St. Boniface Hospital, says removing the mandate raises the risk of another surge in the virus driven by more contagious variants, particularly the delta variant.

"I worry that we're going to enter a fourth wave that will be similar to our third wave," Drobot said.

The province has yet to release modelling showing potential courses the pandemic could take with the delta variant.

At a news conference announcing the changes to the health orders on Tuesday, Roussin said health officials are still working on the modelling and will release it once it's ready to be presented to the public. Despite the absence of pandemic modelling for the delta variant, Roussin said the province is in a position to loosen the restrictions.

Drobot fears what will happen once children under 12, who are not able to receive a vaccine, go back to school in September.

"It seems foolish not to keep things under control now, before the school year starts."

Opposition politicians criticized the decision to relax the health orders.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew said he will continue wearing a mask when out in public.

"Manitobans, once again, are going to step up and protect themselves in a way that this government is not prepared to do," Kinew said.

Given what we know about the delta variant, and how it is more infectious, even to those who are fully vaccinated, "wearing a mask in indoor settings does make sense," Kinew said.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont questioned what basis the government has to lift the mandate without publicly available modelling.

"There's over 100,000 people who are unvaccinated, and children can't be vaccinated. We should be keeping with the mask mandate. We're not, and that's reckless," he said.

Vaccine targets

The loosening of public health restrictions comes as the province approaches its Labour Day target of having 80 per cent of Manitobans 12 and up vaccinated with at least one dose, and 75 per cent with two doses.

As of Aug. 3, the province said it had reached its first-dose target, and appeared on track to reach its two-dose target, with 71.4 per cent of eligible Manitobans having gotten two doses.

Lifting some public health restrictions that require people to be vaccinated in order to participate in certain activities could prompt some to get immunized, the medical lead of Manitoba's vaccine task force says.

Some people may see less reason to get a vaccine, now that they no longer need to show proof of immunization to sit with friends in a restaurant, while others might feel less protected now that health orders no longer dictate the actions of those around them, Dr. Joss Reimer said during a briefing with reporters on Tuesday.

"Certainly for some individuals who may have felt protected by the public health restrictions, they may see more incentive to going and getting that personal protection from the vaccine now that perhaps they didn't earlier," she said.

The province is preparing for a slowdown in demand for the vaccine, now that most people who were eager to get it are immunized, Reimer said.

The focus of the rollout will shift away from the large supersites to targeting areas and groups with lower uptake, such as the Winkler and Stanley health districts in southern Manitoba, which continue to have the lowest uptake in the province.

"It's going to be slow and we're not going to see big jumps in the uptake from week to week, but we hope that if we continue to engage and be available and answer questions that we will see a slow and steady increase in that area of the province, as well as everywhere else," Reimer said.