by The provincial Health Department says it’s changing its approach to managing COVID-19 with the World Health Organization saying the virus no longer requires a global emergency-type response.
It says COVID-19 will now be treated similar to other respiratory illnesses such as the flu.
Effective today, the province has lifted the Health Protection Act Order, the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination protocol for high-risk settings and the directive around COVID-19 management in long-term care facilities.
The Department says employers and operators of high-risk settings will now be responsible for COVID-19 policies, including masking and whether employees, outside service providers and volunteers need to be vaccinated.
It says the weekly COVID-19 dashboard will be updated for the last time on Thursday and the province will continue to report the data in the monthly COVID-19 report.