'Never say never': N.B.'s chief medical officer not promising the end of COVID-19 restrictions forever

For New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health, Monday’s removal of the mandatory order won’t change much.

Dr. Jennifer Russell says she will continue to wear a mask indoors, and COVID-19 will remain a large focus of her day to day, as it has for two years.

The removal of the mandatory order means the public will no longer have to follow public health measures, like masking, gathering limits and isolation requirements.

Those measures are now a personal choice. But with the promise of new variants and cases in the future, Dr. Russell can’t guarantee mandatory measures won’t return.

“Never say never,” she said. “You know, at this point in time, we are in transition in terms of you know, being passed the peak of the Omicron wave. We do expect more variants, we do expect more surges…we’re going to be in a planning phase and a preparation phase for whatever it is that comes next.”

“We will always try to maintain that balance between what measures are necessary and what things we need to do to protect people from COVID, but also all of the other negative impacts to the social determinants of health.”

She said she felt “neutral” about the day — it’s a second attempt for the province to lift all measures.

And in downtown Fredericton around noon, about half were still wearing masks. Those CTV Atlantic asked said they respect people’s personal choice.

“I feel it should take place, the decision to lift the restrictions, although I myself will still wear a mask,” said John McAloon.

Bruce Driscoll said it has been a tough two years for everyone.

“I respect greatly the fact that people have got serious decisions to make about whether to mask or not mask…This isn’t something we should be divided on, I know we are, but we shouldn’t be,” he said.

Hillary Campbell, a salon owner, said she spoke to clients and her team — and decided that for now, masks will be maintained inside their location.

“We don’t get sick time, we don’t get sick leave here, so if one of us does get sick, then we kind of all get sick,” she said.

She said mask-wearing will likely continue for at least a month, and their clientele have been very supportive.

“Protecting ourselves, protecting our community, it’s just our small part that we can do,” she said.

Dr. Russell is ‘somewhat surprised’ she hasn’t come down with the virus herself. She says Canada’s chief public health officers will continue to meet twice a week, and they have no guess as to when the pandemic may actually be declared over.

“Absolutely none. I think what we’re going to see is we’re probably going to see a resurgence of the flu that we haven’t seen in the last two years because of all the public health measures,” she said.

New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador made the move Monday, while Nova Scotia will follow in one week. Prince Edward Island is planning to remove many public health measures April 7.