VANCOUVER -- If case numbers remain low, and at least 70 per cent of the population is immunized, the B.C. government figures the public can go grocery shopping, to the office, and to community centres again without wearing a mask as soon as July.
The good news, which some doctors are calling ambitious, came Tuesday during a briefing on B.C.’s COVID-19 restart plan.
The government didn't specify a day in July, but said it would be a slow and gradual easing of the regulation.
Officials cautioned that people will still need to keep their distance, and anyone who might feel more comfortable wearing a mask, would be encouraged to do so.
“This surprised a lot of people including myself,” said Dr. Brian Conway of the Vancouver Infectious Disease Centre, who called the plan ambitious.
“In some places, let’s say like Vancouver Island, where we’re counting cases on a daily basis in the single digits, it certainly makes sense to loosen the mask mandate sooner rather than later,” he said.
Doctor Anna Wolak, member of Masks4Canada a grassroots group of volunteers who seek to inform the public about mask use, said she is cautiously optimistic about the government’s plan. The family physician likes that it’s not happening all at once, and that it will largely based on how much of the population has been vaccinated.
“That’s the biggest thing that’s different now than it was from the last restart plan, we now have the weapon of vaccinations” she said.
B.C.’s Provincial Health Officer hopes that by September, wearing a mask will be a personal choice.
“There may be some situation during the fall, when we go into respiratory season, where we have clusters of cases of respiratory illness where masks will be important again,” she said.
British Columbians were required to wear masks in public places beginning in October 2020, and for now they remain mandatory.
