Hospital mask mandates will soon be lifted, says Health P.E.I.

Health P.E.I. says it plans to follow the lead of other Canadian provinces and drop the requirement for mandatory masking at health-care facilities.

Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago, staff and visitors entering Prince Edward Island hospitals and other health-care facilities have been required to wear masks at all times.

But that will soon change.

"We know that people have had lots of vaccine, there's been lots of natural infection, immunity is quite high, and we honestly need to move to a post-pandemic point," said Health P.E.I. CEO Dr. Michael Gardam.

Masks have helped protect people from COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, Gardam said, but they have their drawbacks, too.

"It's hard on your nose. It's hard on your ears. It's isolating. Patients can't hear you as well. It really does interfere with some of the work that we do. And frankly, our health-care workers, the vast majority of them, are sick and tired of wearing masks."

Some time in the next couple of weeks, masking rules will loosen significantly, said Dr. Heather Morrison, P.E.I.'s chief public health officer.

"In certain places, masks may be required, or people may choose to wear masks. But it will be really on a risk assessment. That will be really facility by facility, or even section," she said.

"For example, oncology may be a certain part that is treated differently from a mask perspective than somewhere else," she said. That's because people being treated for cancer often have compromised immune systems. 

Most other provinces have already made the masking changes, and Morrison said that with COVID-19 cases at a sustained low level and high vaccination rates among the most vulnerable Islanders, it makes sense for P.E.I. to do the same.

Gardam said that for years, health-care staff have been instructed to mask up when dealing with a patient who has the flu, and he expects that to continue. A mask mandate could return in other circumstances as well — for example, in the case of an outbreak of influenza, RSV or COVID-19.

Michelle Donaldson, the communications director with P.E.I.'s Lung Association, said she trusts the experts, though the move will cause concern among some Islanders.

"Those folks who are among the most vulnerable probably are going to feel a bit more anxious when they're visiting those health-care centres," she said.

Debbie Mullen-Campbell, president of the P.E.I. Seniors Federation, suspects most people will support the change to masking rules.