'It'll be a journey for us': Ontario's top doctor speaks on the future of living with COVID-19

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health is shedding light on what the future of living with COVID-19 in the province will look like while acknowledging that masks are likely here to stay for the foreseeable future.

“It'll be a journey for us,” Dr. Kieran Moore said during his first news conference since sweeping public health restrictions lifted earlier this week.

“We've had two years where we've been very fearful of this virus and the strains have changed over time… So, as a society, to decrease that fear will take time for us to normalize living with this virus.”

Moore said that general public health recommendations, like social distancing and hand hygiene, are “prudent and reasonable” in the face of the changing nature of the virus, but that as a society, Ontarians will need to decide which public health measures will be maintained going forward.

“Clearly, the most important one -- and probably the last one to go -- will be masking,” Moore said.

Moreover, he explained that even when masking mandates are eventually lifted in businesses and other indoor public settings, “many of us” will continue to wear them even if they're not mandated at that time.

“Masking protects me, it protects you, but it protects the most vulnerable members of our community from transmission.”

He also said that Ontario needs to "reassess the value" of the COVID-19 vaccine passport system, which was introduced by the government in September, in the coming weeks to decide if the practice should come to an end.

Moore made similar comments about the future of life in Ontario amid the COVID-19 pandemic last week while predicting that the strain on the province’s health-care system would likely start to crest this month.

He said Thursday that health-care indicators, such as hospitalizations and case positivity rate, are showing a “general improvement” as the number of outbreaks in long-term care homes and ICU admissions related to the virus gradually decreases.

Earlier this week, Ontario relaxed public health restrictions that prohibited indoor dining at bars and restaurants, the use of gyms and movie theatres, and capped the size of social gatherings.

Those restrictions are expected to ease even further on Feb. 21 when the province enters Step 2 of its reopening plan.

Moore said that he and his team are following the lead of other countries where general health indicators are trending in the right direction, such as the U.K. and South Africa, and acknowledged that those countries are not operating under the same set of strict public health measures currently in place in Ontario.

The recent change in tone from the province’s top doctor comes as attitudes towards COVID-19 across the country appear to be shifting.

In a recent poll conducted by Angus Reid, the majority of Canadians -- 54 per cent -- now say they want all public health restrictions to end, which is an increase of 15 points since early January.

With that in mind, and as the wave of Omicron-fuelled COVID-19 infections in Ontario continues to wane, Moore said that the discussion surrounding the future of living with the virus should take place now.

“It'll be a societal discussion, and government will make the eventual decisions. But I think it's worthwhile, as a society, to start having those discussions.”