Too early to drop mask mandates, P.E.I. Opposition leader says

The leader of P.E.I.'s official Opposition is calling on the provincial government to keep COVID-19 mask mandates in place.

Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker said during an interview with CBC News: Compass on Monday that the province shouldn't drop the mandates, given rising COVID-19 cases and the experiences of other jurisdictions that have removed restrictions too early.

"You see a very unified voice from the health community and all of those jurisdictions saying that we need to reinstate some of those measures because the case numbers are going up and hospitalizations are going up and education systems are being stressed," he said.

"If we want to keep our economy open, if we want to keep our schools open, if we want to make sure that we don't overstress our health-care system, then we need to take reasonable measures, measures that are effective."

Masking requirements are slated to be lifted on Thursday under Step 3 of P.E.I.'s COVID-19 transition plan. The province is expected to give an update on Step 3 later this week.

Bevan-Baker said the government has not provided him with any details about the plan.

CBC News has requested an interview with Premier Dennis King multiple times over recent months. All of them have been declined.

Bevan-Baker called for more transparency regarding the pandemic situation in the Island.

"For so long, government was very willing and amenable in terms of sharing information and data with Islanders. But in the most recent wave, Omicron, suddenly about half has been turned off. And there's almost no data reaching Islanders," he said.

"I'm not sure how much is being collected by government these days, but I can tell you that very little of it is making it into the hands of the media or Islanders or politicians, for that matter, outside of government. And that makes it very difficult for us to know where we stand."

P.E.I. has dropped the number of scheduled COVID-19 updates to one per week. The province said in an emailed statement any changes or updates on its public health guidance for Step 3 will be shared by the end of the week.

Bevan-Baker said keeping mask requirements is "not a burden on anybody" while remaining an effective way to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

He said that while all Islanders wish the pandemic was over, the data shows it's still too early to drop public health restrictions.

"Our numbers are stubbornly high. And again, this is based on limited data and what is being made available to us. But we're not there yet," he said.