You may be able to board the bus without a mask but experts say we shouldn't yet expect the same when visiting your family doctor.
The province is set to further ease its mandatory masking rules as of midnight Saturday, including on public transit and in many healthcare settings.
Despite this, many if not most of the province's hospitals and health networks -- including our three regional hospitals -- say they will still be requiring masks be worn by patients, staff, and visitors. Experts say we should be expecting the same at smaller community clinics as well.
"Many offices will be doing the same, requiring masks, where others may just be recommending them, but I suspect many, many settings will continue requiring masks," said Dr. Sharon Bal, a family physician and primary care lead for the Cambridge North Dumfries Ontario Health Team.
So while many clinics may be choosing to chart their own course, that may not be the case across the board. If you want to know what the rules are at your local clinic you can call ahead but if you just show up, you should probably have a mask with you or expect to be handed one.
"If people can expect to be asked to wear a mask and be supportive of that, understanding it's really to keep our staff safe when we have such a huge HR crunch and so much backlog, and to keep each other safe," said Dr. Bal.
Being supportive and understanding is the main message as there is concern any time the rules change there could also be confrontation.
"When organizations have to come up with their own policies we do hear from our front-line staff, particularly our medical office assistants [...] that they do worry sometimes about friction or anger being directed toward them," Dr. Bal said, adding masking is really a small, simple measure most people should not have a problem with.
"This is a really small thing that we all know how to do," she said. "You're usually in an office for maybe 20-30 minutes for your appointment, if you can wear it you can take it off when you get outside, and hopefully people can show kindness to staff who are just trying to keep everybody including themselves safe."
On top of all that, Dr. Bal said now is also not the time to be adding more stress on the front-lines of Ontario's healthcare system.
"For sure there's tons of stress, this has been a collective trauma for our communities going through this the last two years, but your healthcare team is there to help you and kindness goes a long way when people are extremely, extremely burnt out," she said.
"People should feel that hospitals and primary care offices and specialist offices are safe environments, and the whole idea of asking people to mask is in support of that, so that people feel the psychological safety as well as the physical safety."
