Renewed calls for mask mandate in Quebec schools

Some COVID-19 observers are renewing their calls for a new mask mandate in Quebec schools.

Olivier Drouin, the founder of COVID-Écoles, says the number of coronavirus cases is on the rise and implementing a mask mandate and installing air purifiers to improve ventilation should be a government priority.

“It’s the solution to the problem,” he told Global News.

Data from the Quebec’s Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) points to a quadrupling of coronavirus cases in the last week of October based on test results from waste water at treatment facilities.

The Montreal Children’s Hospital continues to operate well above capacity and the Omicron subvariant, BQ.1 continues to spread.

READ MORE: Quebec health professionals perplexed by public health’s decision to end mandatory isolation

“We still have lots of transmission occurring in the population,” Dr. Gaston De Serres, Epidemiologist at the INSPQ told Global News.

Last week the government removed the mandatory five-day isolation period, a move that sparked a huge outcry by some epidemiologists.

Some people are now saying a return to the mask mandate in schools is needed to protect the population.

“Some children have caught COVID four times since last January and they’re really sick,” Nancy Delagrave, of COVID-Stop told Global News.

For now, the government has no plans to impose new COVID-19 measures.