COVID-19: Face masks to be made mandatory for millions in Toronto and Peel regions, mayors to announce
Toronto Mayor John Tory and several other mayors of surrounding suburbs announced mandatory face mask orders for their respective cities at press conferences Tuesday morning.
Tory implored Torontonians to mask up to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in a city that’s seeing a decline in cases, saying the measure will help avoid scenarios like those south of the border.
In the United States, cities in the Sun Belt are seeing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases that experts attribute to states implementing economic reopening plans too early.
Toronto’s top medical officer, Dr. Eileen de Villa, will issue a report on the recommendation of face masks to city council Tuesday and councillors will vote on the new proposed bylaw. Both Tory and de Villa said they were confident council will pass the bylaw.
The bylaw is set to take effect next week, around the same time Toronto’s public transit system will enforce a policy that will make it mandatory for all riders to wear face masks when on the subway, bus or streetcar.
The order comes two weeks after Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he would not enforce mandatory masks for a province with 14.5 million people, even though he “highly, highly (recommends) it.”
On Monday, chairs and mayors of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area agreed to ask the province to adopt a mandatory mask policy to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus in their cities as almost all of Ontario enters Stage 2 of reopening.
The face masks order would apply to more than 4.3 million people inside the Toronto and Peel regions, with 2.93 million people affected in Ontario’s capital.
On Friday, Kingston, a city east of Toronto, made it mandatory to wear face masks in indoor public spaces after an outbreak where five people tested positive for COVID-19 at a nail salon.
More to come.