Quebec College of Physicians recommends wearing masks as pediatric ERs buckle under strain

Quebec's College of Physiciansis urging people to wear masks in public spaces, citing a "worrying rise" in respiratory virus cases amongchildren and overflowing pediatric emergency rooms.

The professional order posted the recommendation on Twitter Sunday afternoon, saying more andmore people are starting to gather indoors, which is causinga number of airborne viruses to spread.

On Monday,Ontario's chief medical officer of health said he is "strongly recommending" the wearing of masksin all indoor public settings, including schools and childcare settings,but he stopped short of recommending a return to a mask mandate in the province.

Doctors across Canadahave been saying an early arrival of the flu, a resurgence in respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and the continued spread of COVID-19 has made for a perfect storm of respiratory illnessthat's sending many children to the hospital stretchingan already overburdened system.

As of Sunday evening, Montreal's two pediatric hospital emergency rooms the CHU Sainte-Justine and theMontreal Children's Hospital were operating at194 per centand 125 per centcapacity, respectively.

Dr. Christopher Labos, an epidemiologist and cardiologist in Montreal, says wearing a mask is a logical step to help ease that burden.

"If you're going to be indoors breathing the same air with a bunch of other human beings, that's how these viruses spread. So if people wear masks, we'll have less people getting sick and less people showing up to the emergency room."

Labos notes that many parents can't get their hands on pediatric painkillers to treat fevers, which is forcing them to turnto children's hospitals for help. Hesays people don't fully understand the consequences of letting these respiratory viruses spread unchecked.

"If the emergency rooms are full, we can't treat other stuff. I mean, people end up having to wait hours to get seen and sometimes they just end up leaving because nobody's seeing them," he said.

Labos says wearing a mask whether it's for COVID-19, RSV or influenza has been shown to stem the spread of respiratory illness.

"When we were wearing masks, we had no influenza, right?" he said of the situation at the height of the pandemic.

"I think we've proven to ourselves that masks work. We just have to do them, even if they are just a little bit uncomfortable for some people."

WATCH| Montrealers react to recommendations about wearing masks again:

See what some Montrealers have to say about masks returning

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Montrealers CBC spoke to Monday seemed to have mixed feelings about masking as some experts begin to issue new recommendations.

Labos saysthere's reason to believe cases of influenza will be especially high this year, and he encouraged Quebecers to get both their flu shot and COVID-19 booster for adequate protection this winter.

'We need more than just a recommendation'

Marc-Andr Dugas, head of pediatrics at Centre mre-enfantSoleil (CMES), a children's hospital in Quebec City, says his hospital is overcapacity due to viral infections, forcingsurgeries to be postponed.

"In the last few weeks, we've gone up to 150 per centof our capacity in the emergency department, with overcapacity also in the intensive care units."

He says it's gotten to a point where children who come to the hospital with non-urgent needs are being forced to wait so long for care that their situation becomes urgent.

While the Quebec government has been working to address the long waitsin ERs, it has not moved to bring back mask mandates.

In an email to CBC on Monday, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry said the government is "indeed concerned about the circulation of respiratory viruses at the present time." Itsaid that wearing masks is recommended in the presence of vulnerable people and in places when it is difficult to maintain a distance from others.

But Kim Lavoie, the Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Medecine at Universit du Qubec Montral, says these recommendations are not working.

"When the government makes a recommendationand I would say a soft recommendation that tells the public that it's not important," she said.

"I think we need more than just a recommendation."

She says she's hopingthat Quebec public health officials reinstate the mask mandate, but that theyspecifyit be used in situations where it'smost beneficial, such as in crowded indoor spaces with bad ventilation.

Lavoie, who has been studyingadherence to COVID-19 measures and behaviours around them since March 2020, says a recent finding shows more than 75 per cent of Canadians would be somewhat to extremely willing to re-engage with certain measures, including mask wearing.

She says it's up to the government to help people make informed decisions and explainwhy the measure is necessary.

"We don't need widespread lockdowns and isolation what we need is tools to help the public understand the risk in different situations and how to take action," she said.

Earlier this month, Quebec's public health director, Dr. Luc Boileau, said only people who havesymptoms such as a sore throat, stuffy nose or a cough should wear a mask, regardless of the type of virus.

Montreal Public Health DirectorDr.Mylne Drouinwill be speaking with reporters on Tuesday to provide a review of how public health measures worked in Montreal during the pandemic.