The acting medical officer of health for Windsor-Essex is taking a cautious approach when it comes to dropping mask mandates.
Dr. Shanker Nesathurai says their experience with the pandemic has been unpredictable and it's something he remains cautious about.
"There have been times where we thought had less activity and that was followed by times of greater activity, so that's what thing I always remain cautious about," he says.
Ontario's chief medical officer of health announced March 4 that mask mandates will be removed by the end of March as long as positive public health trends continue.
Dr. Kieran Moore told reporters the province can "only mandate masking for so long," with the risk from COVID-19 decreasing.
Dr. Nesathurai says right now in Windsor-Essex the level of disease activity is where it was a week ago, but the province will make judgements on the burden of disease activity.
"The anticipated level of disease activity based on provincewide information and we would defer to the chief medical officer of health to make that final decision, and wait for their guidance when it comes to masking mandates," he says.
Nesathurai says they have to wait for the province to make the final announcement on the data that's available.
Generically I would expect that we would be more cautious on where masking is required in places where there might be more vulnerable populations or the risk of transmission could lead to more severe adverse consequences," he adds.
Dr. Moore said Friday that Ontario has a very high vaccination rate, hospitalizations have been declining, and he believes the worst is behind us.