Regina mayor reiterates mask use, council not bringing in mandatory mask policy

Regina doesn’t appear to be heading towards its own mandatory mask policy, at least for the time being.

Mayor Michael Fougere said Tuesday council unanimously voted against bringing in its own policy.

“Let’s follow the science. Let’s follow what the chief medical health officer says,” he said. “It’s not necessarily health-wise right now, but it’s important we don’t have a patchwork of rules and regulations: ‘When you come to Regina, you must wear a mask, while somewhere else you don’t have to do that.’ That could be confusing to the public as well and we want to avoid confusion.

“All mayors that I speak to in the City Mayors Caucus are vigilant about mask-wearing and what to do but they all want to follow the science as well. We’re waiting and will move forward from the directions from the chief medical health officer.”

Fougere wanted to reiterate the importance of wearing masks in public spaces where physical distancing is tough to do. He brought up the recent spike in active Regina cases, with only one case on Sept. 7 and 24 as of Tuesday.

“Please be cautious, be careful and ensure that we remain safe,” Fougere said. “We’re very lucky so far and overall we’ve had lots of people follow the rules but we’re still seeing community transmission (and) we’re seeing larger groups happening.

“We’re seeing an individual in Saskatoon charged $2,000 for a much larger gathering and we’re seeing them here in Regina too. We just have to be careful.”

Fougere pointed out that a Saskatchewan Health Authority release on Sept. 18 indicated a person had ridden multiple Regina Transit routes over multiple days before testing positive for COVID-19.

“That’s part of the concern that one person inadvertently or otherwise can spread this so quickly that we have 11 drivers that are out of commission and (self-monitoring) for their health. It just means we have to be careful,” Fougere said.

As Canada deals with a surge of cases over recent weeks, Fougere says it’s important people continue to remain vigilant to stop the spread of COVID-19.

“I think it’s important that the individuals understand that wearing a mask is not so much about your protection, it’s about someone else’s protection. It’s being altruistic and thinking of people around you,” Fougere said.

“There a lot of people feeling stressed by this pandemic because we don’t totally understand the complete nature of it yet. We don’t have a vaccine yet but we do have some sound, fundamental principles from the health authority about what we can do.”