Experts, immunocompromised concerned about N.L.'s plan to drop all COVID-19 mandates

As Newfoundland and Labrador marches toward lifting all pandemic-era public health restrictions in just under two weeks some peoplewho are at a higher risk of infection including seniors and theimmunocompromised are feeling uneasy about the plan.

Katie Pittman of Pouch Coveis going through chemotherapy treatments to battle cancer, which has weakened her immune system.

She's worried that public health officials aren't providing enough information ahead of March 14's rollback..

"It seems like people like me and other people who are immunocompromisedhave been left to make our own decisions about protecting ourselves," Pittman, who is in her 70s, told CBC News on Tuesday.

"I realize things have to open up. I understand that and I realize that's good for a large percentage of the population. But for people like me, I am going to have to go out into the world.Are there extra precautions I can take?"

Pittman said the last two years have been easier since most people have been protecting themselves, and others, with masks, vaccines and hand-washing.

But with restrictions dropping, she fearspeople will be less likely to keep public health in mind.

"The people who are immunocompromisedthen will have a greater risk of exposure and we don't know what to do about it," Pittman said.

Anxious experts

EemaanThind, an independent public health practitioner living in St. John's, said she has been anxious since the province announced its plan to completely remove restrictions by mid-March.

"I can definitely say I was horrified. Personally I was looking forward to the end of the Omicron wave in March, and cautiously optimistic because there's the Omicron BA.2 [subvariant]," said Thind,who co-authored a COVID-19 excess mortality report for the Royal Society of Canada in June.

"I think telling people we're moving out of the pandemic phase into an endemic phase at this stage is very misleading health communication. Coronavirus is definitely not going to become endemic in Newfoundland or in the world inMarch 2022."

Prof. Tara Moriarty of the University of Toronto, also an author on the Royal Society of Canada report, said current trends suggest that if everyone inNewfoundland and Labrador contracts COVID-19, it could mean 300 to 500deaths.

"I think that the wave may not have crested yet in Newfoundland and Labrador," she said. "Test positivity rates area good indicator. They went up, they came back down, but they're going back up again."

N.L. public health officials have said more cases are expected as the province opens further.

But with restrictions set to lift, said Moriarty, it's still a good idea for people to continue wearing masks, and the provincial government has said it will continue to strongly encourage mask use, and masks will remain mandatory in health-care facilities past March 14.

With the waningeffectiveness of booster doses and the more infectious Omicron BA.2 subvariant, said Moriarty, it's a bad time to remove masking mandates.

"Masking is one of the mosteffective ways that we can prevent spread of the virus. It's a really important thing to do and it's a fairly light measure,"shesaid.

"Even if the recommendations right now that mask mandates be removed, I think it's a really good idea for people to continue to mask anyway."

Read morefrom CBC Newfoundland and Labrador