Ontario top doctor to ask public to mask up this week: sources
Ontario's top doctor will recommend the public begin masking on Monday in an effort to help overwhelmed children's hospitals, two government sources said Saturday.
There will be no mask mandate, just a general recommendation to wear masks, especially in crowded situations, said the sources, who are speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the process publicly.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore has previously said this fall and winter would see a resurgence of respiratory illnesses and he would recommend masking in certain indoor settings if hospitals began cancelling surgeries to deal with a surge of patients.
Meanwhile, medical officials are increasingly calling for the public to mask up.
Children's hospitals across the province are already overwhelmed with young patients flooding emergency departments, pediatric wards and intensive care units.
The chief executive of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto wants Ontarians to do three things: wear masks, get vaccinated for the flu and for COVID-19 and stay away from work, family and friends when sick.
"I would definitely encourage universal masking right now, there's no question that would help," said Dr. Ronald Cohn.
The hospital announced Friday it would be ramping down surgeries to redeploy staff to those areas, Cohn added.
"It is extremely busy and although I recognize that words like crisis and historic and even unprecedented have gone from signal to noise over the last two and a half years, we are seeing historic volumes of children in our emergency room, on our regular pediatric wards and in our ICUs," Cohn said in an interview.
The children who are coming in are very sick, he said, noting 38 kids in the hospital's ICU are currently on a ventilator.
"So far none have died, thank God," Cohn said.
But the cancellation of surgeries is a big blow to children, their families and health-care workers.
"We had to significantly reduce all of the scheduled surgeries that are not life saving or very urgent in order to create the capacity for the children who either need these very urgent life saving procedures or need other life saving admissions to the ICU and to the pediatric wards," he said. "This is devastating for families who have been waiting already for so long. But it's important for people to know how incredibly morally distressing this is for all of us, too, as health-care professionals."
The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa has opened a second pediatric ICU and had to cancel surgeries to redeploy health-care workers to staff the new space.
The Ontario Hospital Association is also asking Ontario residents to wear masks indoors and to get up-to-date vaccinations for COVID-19 and influenza.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canadian family stuck in Lebanon anxiously awaits flight options amid Israeli strikes
A Canadian man who is trapped in Lebanon with his family says they are anxiously waiting for seats on a flight out of the country, as a barrage of Israeli airstrikes continues.
Yazidi woman captured by ISIS rescued in Gaza after more than a decade in captivity
A 21-year-old Yazidi woman has been rescued from Gaza where she had been held captive by Hamas for years after being trafficked by ISIS.
Scientists looked at images from space to see how fast Antarctica is turning green. Here's what they found
Parts of icy Antarctica are turning green with plant life at an alarming rate as the region is gripped by extreme heat events, according to new research, sparking concerns about the changing landscape on this vast continent.
Suspect in shooting of Toronto cop was out on bail
A 21-year-old man who was charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a Toronto police officer this week was out on bail at the time of the alleged offence, court documents obtained by CTV News Toronto show.
A 6-year-old girl was kidnapped in Arkansas in 1995. Almost 30 years later, a suspect was identified
Nearly 30 years after a six-year-old girl disappeared in Western Arkansas, authorities have identified a suspect in her abduction through DNA evidence.
A Michigan man is charged with killing and dismembering a janitor he met on the Grindr dating app
Prosecutors have charged a Michigan man with killing and dismembering a janitor he met on the dating app Grindr.
NEW Youth pleads guilty to manslaughter in death of P.E.I. teen Tyson MacDonald
A teen charged with the murder of another teen on Prince Edward Island last year has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Haitian gang kills at least 70 people, including 3 infants, UN says
Armed men belonging to the Gran Grif gang killed at least 70 people, including three infants, as they swept through a Haitian town shooting automatic rifles at residents, a spokesperson for the United Nations' Human Rights Office said on Friday.
DEVELOPING 2 dead after fire rips through historic building in Old Montreal
At least two people are dead and others are injured after a fire ripped through a century-old building near Montreal's City Hall, sources told Noovo Info.