P.E.I.’s chief public health officer says her office isn’t ruling out making masks mandatory in the province.
The Guardian asked Dr. Heather Morrison about mandatory mask wearing in light of the fact that some big retailers, such as Loblaw’s (Atlantic Superstore, No Frills), Old Navy and Walmart require all customers to wear them while inside the store.
“Right now, P.E.I. is in a fortunate position, we don’t have widespread community transmission but we’re watching carefully what’s going on around the country," Morrison said.
“We think this is a really good opportunity to do good education about how to wear a mask, when to wear a mask, why it’s important and get used to it because, at some point, if we start to see a second wave or increased cases here it may need to be mandatory."
The chief public health officer reiterated that while masks provide one layer of protection, they do not replace other public health measures such as physical distancing and hand washing.
“We’ve said right along if we need to make them mandatory here we will right across the board and it would be for indoor spaces but we also have to balance that with our local epidemiology."