It is now mandatory to wear a mask in the usual spaces of Ottawa apartment buildings and condominiums after an amendment to the mask law passed by city council on Wednesday.
The Council approved a move to remove mandatory Ottawa mask regulations until the end of October amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to giving municipal staff the strength to make larger mask regulations for the city’s safe outdoor spaces where giant gatherings hinder physical distance, restrictions have been extended to enter or remain in non-unusual multi-unit complex spaces, adding elevators.
Councillors Riley Brockington and Theresa Kavanagh said they listened to citizens in their neighborhoods, many of whom are older and more vulnerable populations, wondering why masks are needed to buy food in the city but are not used in the apartment’s shared spaces.
They noted that jurisdictions like Toronto without delay to make the use of masks mandatory in those spaces.
Anthony DiMonte, Ottawa’s regulatory leader, said the city’s legal staff were not sure in the first place of the feasibility of adding those spaces to the scope of the transitority mask regulations.
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And when regulations were first enacted in mid-July, the number of COVID-19 cases in the city was becoming good and Ottawa Public Health (PAHO) officials did not reveal the scope of regulation needed for the spread of the virus. In the area.
Since then, Ottawa has noticed a buildup of cases.
On Wednesday, OPH reported 16 new coronavirus cases for the time being on a consecutive day, bringing the city’s total to 2,871 cases since the start of the pandemic.
The number of active cases in Ottawa has also increased to 174, with 12 others recently hospitalized with COVID-19.
Ottawa medical health officer Dr. Vera Etches told the council Wednesday morning that while OPH has connected most of the cases to outbreaks early in the pandemic, August has noticed a higher proportion of transmission to through a close circle of family contacts.
He noted that OPH has not reported any outbreaks in bars, restaurants and gyms since they were allowed to reopen before this summer, nor has the public tracked the transmission among others on OC Transpo buses or trains.
“We’re not seeing epidemics in environments where other people wear masks,” Etches said Wednesday.
While this is an undoubtedly positive trend, after the assembly it noted that these spaces remain “at high risk” of transmission and that the OPH would possibly not encounter “links” between contracted instances in those environments.
DiMonte also said after the assembly that the new powers of regulation to demand masks in environments can be implemented in spaces such as the Byward Market, where nighttime outdoor queues at Clarence Street bars stood out as spaces with greater threat of transmission.
If applicable, masking regulations in those spaces would be scheduled only around peak concentration hours and would no longer be the mandatory general hours of the day.