Yukon keeps mask mandate for schools, lifts other public health restrictions

Students and staff returning to school next week in Yukon will still be required to wear masks in all indoor settings despite the territorial government lifting the indoor masking requirement and the COVID-19 vaccine passport program elsewhere in the territory beginning on Friday.

Premier Sandy Silver said during a news conference Wednesday morning that the mandatory masking will apply in all classrooms, hallways and buses.

The masking requirement will also remain in place in all early learning childcare centres.

Silver said the requirement will allow the territory's acting chief medical officer of health, Dr.Catherine Elliott, and her team, "to assess the impacts of families returning from March break."

He said some other measures in schools will be relaxed beginning next week.

"Schools can resume inter-school activities, schools can participate in sports and recreational events including arts and drama," he said.

He added early learning settings will again be able to welcome visitors, as long as they are masked and follow the centres' other guidelines.

Schools will be able to resume out-of-territory field trips beginning April 19, the day after the Easter weekend, Silver said.

'A lot of surveillance'

Neither Silver nor Elliott could say how long the masking requirement will remain in place in schools and early learning child care centres.

Elliott said she'll continue to monitor what's happening in those places by looking at absenteeism, case counts, the positivity rate, severe outcomes and vaccination rates of the age groups of those who attend schools and early learning centres.

"I will be doing a lot of surveillance," she said. "And I'm hopeful that, you know, in a month or so, after we see how the mixing between the different schools goes and how everybody comes back from March break, and we'll see."

Lifting restrictions on Friday

Silver said that in addition to lifting the masking and proof of vaccination requirements in most settings across the territory, his government is also lifting the state of emergency this Friday.

"Health indicators continue to trend in the right direction," said Silver. "There's no longer a need for temporary health measures that have been put in place."

He said businesses and organizations will still be able to request people to wear masks and show proof of vaccination if they want to.

Silver said the government will continue to make its vaccine verifier app available for businesses and organizations to download.

Although the government is lifting the masking requirement, it still suggests people wear masks "particularly when you're in a crowded area or when it's difficult to physically distance," Silver said.

He added that the government is prepared to return to a state of emergency if required, like it did last summer at the start of the Delta wave.

Missed the news conference? Watch it here.

Non-vaccinated government employees back on April 4

Silver said territorial government employees who haven't indicated whether or not they've been vaccinated will be able to come back to work on April 4.

However, he added the vaccine requirement will stay in place for government employees who work in high-risk settings.

"That includes long-term care homes, residential substance use programs, hospitals, shelters, group homes or children in government care, correctional centres, public health centres, and public health clinics," Silver said.

"It remains essential that we protect our most vulnerable and those working in high-risk settings."

He added that in non-government high-risk settings, the territorial government will continue to require employers to implement policies for employees, contractors and volunteers "to be vaccinated as appropriate for their settings."

From required to discretionary measures

Elliott said the public health restrictions were being lifted because the trend in the level of COVID-19 activity in the territory is "manageable."

As of Wednesday there were 47 reported active cases of COVID-19 in the territory and no one was in hospital due to COVID-19, according to the government's online COVID-19 dashboard.

Elliott added that may change and depends on how people behave.

"I want to emphasize this is not lifting and getting rid of all our public health measures and protections. This is really about moving from compulsory or required measures, to discretionary measures," she said.

"What sort of responsibility each of us takes as we move forward will definitely impact whether cases go up or cases go down."