Higgs softens stance against mask mandates in schools

Premier Blaine Higgs has opened the door to allowing mask mandates in New Brunswick schools to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Higgs told reporters Tuesday it would be "fine" if the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development adopted its own mask protocol provincewide.

He also said that he didn't meanto be insensitive last week when he suggested that everyone in New Brunswick would probably be infected with COVID-19 eventually.

The premier's comments on schools represent a shift after weeks of discussion and rancour among some parents about the ending of all pandemic protections on March 14, including the ending of mandatory masking in schools.

Education Minister Dominic Cardy has repeatedly said that his department was bound to follow Public Health's recommendation to end all measures.

"I continue to be unwilling to go against the recommendations of Public Health," Cardy said in a Twitter post March 9. "I will continue to wear a mask indoors and to support others doing the same."

At the same time, Health Minister Dorothy Shephard has pointed out that different institutions in the province, including the provincial court, the University of New Brunswick and the Legislative Assembly itself, have the right to set their own mask rules.

Higgs was asked Tuesday why individual school principals or district education councils couldn't make the same decision.

"You could say if the Department of Education as such made that sort of protocol change, that would be fine," he said.

But he added that "it would be difficult and confusing if every school decided to do its own thing.

"As a general philosophy it would be something that should be supported through the department as a whole, so that we're not confusing people throughout the province on just what our policy is, and today our policy is clearly what's recommended by Public Health."

Higgs also tried to explain Tuesday what he meant last week when he said that "we know probably at the end of the day, we'll all get COVID in some way or another, and maybe it won't be what we think is COVID, we'll think it's a cold."

The comment sparked a strong reaction, particularly among people who are immunocompromised or otherwise at risk of severe COVID symptoms.

"I know that people felt that it was insensitive," Higgs said Tuesday. "I didn't mean it that way."

But the premier also defended the comment, saying current COVID variants are highly transmissible and society likely would not tolerate the kind of lockdowns needed to stop it.

Given that, "it's going to go through the communities, and we're seeing it. It's kind of the reality of what we're facing," he said.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell would not say Tuesday whether she expects New Brunswickers "will all get COVID" as the premier said.

"There's no doubt right now there is a high risk of people being exposed to COVID. That I can definitely say."

But she said if people follow the now-familiar practices vaccinations, mask-wearing, distancing, hand washing and staying home when sick that would "prevent everybody from getting COVID."

Russell said she agrees with comments by Shephard that "we know a sixth wave is coming" but said the current rise in hospitalizations and cases represents the tail end of the fifth wave of COVID in New Brunswick.

She said the province's winter plan managed to blunt the wave, but the result is that it's been spread out over a longer period and is still subsiding.

There were 13 new hospitalizations reported in Tuesday's weekly COVID-19 update, bringing the total to 142 in the province. There were also more than 7,500 new cases reported, though experts believe not all cases are being reported and counted.

Russell said the current increase in cases was expected when measures were lifted, and it shouldpeak and decrease over the next two weeks.

"That's the hope," she said.