Ontario's top doctor says the province won't be reinstating its mask mandate despite a sixth wave of COVID-19 that won't peak for several more weeks.
Dr. Kieran Moore says it is clear Ontario is in a sixth wave of the pandemic driven by the BA.2 variant.
He says the peak of this wave may see up to 600 patients in ICU, but the province's health bureaucracy has assured him hospitals have capacity to care for those people.
Moore announced expanded eligibility for COVID-19 PCR testing and antiviral treatments in a news conference on Monday.
Public health indicators have been worsening recently, including the percentage of tests that are positive, the number of hospitalizations, and COVID-19 activity in wastewater surveillance, according to Moore.