SOURCE: As­so­ci­at­ed Press

TORON­TO (AP) — Cana­da’s largest province is re­mov­ing mask man­dates on March 21 in most set­tings, in­clud­ing schools, of­fi­cials an­nounced Wednes­day.

The province of On­tario said im­prov­ing health in­di­ca­tors such as a sta­ble COVID-19 test pos­i­tiv­i­ty rate and de­clin­ing hos­pi­tal­iza­tions, as well as On­tario’s high vac­ci­na­tion rates and the avail­abil­i­ty of an­tivi­ral treat­ments, al­low for these steps.

“It’s now a choice, not a man­date. I hope that any­one who re­mains vul­ner­a­ble con­tin­ues to wear masks,” On­tario Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer of Health Dr. Kier­an Moore said.

The an­nounce­ment came as 1,974 new COVID-19 cas­es were re­port­ed Wednes­day in the province, though Moore has said that lim­its on test­ing mean that the true num­ber is like­ly 10 times that amount, or more than 19,000 cas­es.

“We are now learn­ing to live with and man­age COVID-19 for the long term,” Moore said. “This ne­ces­si­tates a shift to a more bal­anced re­sponse to the pan­dem­ic.”

Moore said in­di­vid­u­als can do their own risk as­sess­ment. “You can’t man­date mask­ing for­ev­er,” he said.

On­tario Pre­mier Doug Ford said at an un­re­lat­ed an­nounce­ment Wednes­day that the world has learned a lot since March 2020 and On­tario is in much bet­ter shape now.

“We’re go­ing to move for­ward cau­tious­ly, and if some­one wants to keep (a mask) on, God bless them, and good for them,” he said. “But I know a lot of peo­ple don’t want to keep them on.”

Ford said he’s been ac­cused of be­ing the most cau­tious gov­ern­ment leader in North Amer­i­ca. On­tario and Toron­to, Cana­da’s largest city, has been locked down more than many oth­er ju­ris­dic­tions over the past two years.