The government is due to announce on Wednesday or Thursday its plan to remove the wearing of masks, which could remain compulsory in public transport only from April. Public Health will take stock of this issue on Thursday in Montreal.
Last week, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, affirmed that the withdrawal of the wearing of the mask in class after the break was the first step in a plan which aims to store face coverings, little by little.
On the strength of its most recent data on immunity against COVID-19, Public Health confirmed its desire the next day to “gradually” eliminate the obligation to wear a mask.
Its “mask-wearing de-escalation plan” must follow the level of risk associated with various activities, explained Marie-France Raynault, senior strategic medical adviser at the Ministry of Health. “So in places where people are seated, like in theaters, meeting rooms, it could be a next step,” she said, noting that the public transport sector should be “the last place where the mask will be removed”.
The sequence retained by Public Health is being finalized on Wednesday. At the end of discussions, the government should therefore announce the chosen scenario in a press release. It will then be up to the acting national director of public health, Luc Boileau, to detail the game plan.
In interview at Homework last week, François Legault’s chief of staff, Martin Koskinen, suggested that Quebec will present a bill in mid-March aimed at ending the state of health emergency. “There, currently, we need the health emergency to impose the mask in public transport. So, how do we give ourselves flexibility, without going into a state of health emergency, but which allows us to act? he asked.
Quebec has also already announced that it will gradually withdraw the vaccine passport by March 14.
Further details will follow.