Mask mandate lifted for Metro Vancouver transit
Mask mandate lifted for Metro Vancouver transit
In alignment with provincial health orders, masks will no longer be mandatory on most TransLink services effective midnight tonight. This change is consistent with the Provincial Health Officer’s decision to repeal the public health order requiring masks in public spaces. TransLink customers and employees are welcome to continue wearing masks on-board transit vehicles and at transit stations, depending on their own level of comfort.
Masks are still mandatory for customers and employees on HandyDART. The Provincial Health Officer still requires masks in medical settings and many customers using this service are travelling to and from medical appointments. We will consult with HandyDART customers and stakeholders, and work with the Provincial Health Office to identify when the appropriate time would be to lift this requirement.
We are following the guidance of British Columbia’s Provincial Health Officer. We are also working closely with Transport Canada and WorkSafeBC, to ensure we are meeting all safety and regulatory requirements across all modes of our transit system.
Customers may notice mandatory mask-related signage on the system after the mandate has lifted as it will take some time for crews to completely remove.
We are ready to welcome customers back to our world-class transit system as our economy reopens. We will continue increased cleaning and improved sanitization on vehicles with thorough ventilation.
Extremely disappointing.
Obviously Dr. Henry and the other public health experts know way more than I, a monkey with a keyboard on the internet, but I wonder if it isn’t too soon. We removed masking in the summer last year and it didn’t end well – I hope history doesn’t repeat itself.
I don’t think I’m alone in this opinion: on the bus yesterday, all but one person was masked, which gave me considerable comfort.
Long overdue. It was already clear beginning of January in which direction we go. 2 months for a reaction is very slow. That many people now still live in fear while just a couple of years ago everyone accepted the often deadly consequences of the flu, makes one scratch the head.
I fully agree too soon
Just because it’s legally allowed doesn’t mean it’s safe! Bonnie Henry has sold out older folks dependent on transit (I’m 80 and car-free), those who need to use transit daily for work, Immun-Compromised folks, and children too young for vaccination. And too many members of the general public wrongly/ naively equate legality with safety. Really sad!
I urge Translink to take the initiative in saying, “The province no longer requires masking on transit vehicles, but out of consideration for our older, youngest, immune-comprimised, and other vulnerable transit users, WE’RE AGAIN REQUIRING MASKING and strongly recommending keeping a minimum of 2 metres apart.”
Until and unless this is done, I’ll be walking a lot more (and shopping less) until rising case numbers force reinstatement of indoor mask mandates. I regret to say that many 80-year-olds and others I mentioned aren’t able to do that….
I wear my mask at work and on transit to protect our elders, the children and immune compromised?
I agree completely with your comments. I’m a retired former Critical Care RN and have done much of my own research about the pandemic. Masks are the first and best way for community protections and prevention of spreading this potentially deadly virus/variants and/or causing devastating effects of Long Covid which many previously health young adults are suffering now. As you state the elderly often have to rely on transit as not driving and it does indeed put them at risk even if masked if a crowded bus or other mode of transport has many passengers not wearing masks. Remember too, TransLink instituted mask wear in August 2020, which was 3 months before the Province issued the mask mandate in public spaces.
Poor soul…we newer need any masks in first place and toxic vaccines . Enjoy fresh air and don’t believe doctors who sold themselves to corrupted politicians ……
Bring back Mandatory Masking for at least another year at least. This should probably be the new normal forever now that we know people can manage this small courtesy, and mask wearing definitely reduces transmission of viruses. We are stuck on crowded transit with no ability to distance from each other. I can avoid other crowded places, or at least keep my distance. No such option for transit.
Having everyone masking on transit helps protect us not just from covid viruses but all the other respiratory viruses like influenza. Most people are still wearing masks which means to me that most people would continue to support mandatory masking.
Why should we have to be exposed to people on transit who can but will just not bother to wear masks… especially when those people may well be the ones who are less careful in reducing their exposure in other situations so may be more likely to be infectious?
R4 buses going on 41rst Ave are always packed and I just don’t feel safe right now without the mask
Please buy hazmat suit for ypur self if you feel uncomfortable and stop blaming peoples who has at least a little common sence left
I received “The Buzzer” in my email today & find it pretty disgusting that the editor decided to go with a “staged” photo of two seniors on a bus happily not wearing masks. Obviously it was chosen on purpose to indicate that even seniors feel safe to ride on transit without masks.
But, dear editor, you’re wrong! Of all your passengers seniors will be the last to remove masks. We received our booster shots in November & December 2021 – by now, nearly April, those booster shots are less and less effective. BA.2 is on its way – why on earth would I not mask in a closed public place like a bus?
As a former, retired Critical Care RN, I have definitely been wearing a mask when out since March 7, 2020 – a full NINE month before the mask mandate in BC and SIX months before TransLink independently (thank goodness) mandated masks on all transit. To consider others who are not immunized & children under 5, those who are immunocompromised are vulnerable to Covid and these more contagious variants, I’d hoped that TransLink would think independently, based on scientific evident positive for mask wear as a preventive measure for the public. I was VERY disappointed TransLink has dropped mask requirements for passengers.
I agree with many of those disappointed with the de-masking decision. Look how the new variant in China, Hong Kong and Korea has surged and it’s just a matter of time that we too will experience the same proliferations. If there are no masks being worn and ridership increases over the summer and fall it is inevitable that the infection and hospitalizations here will also increase. So I’ll would wager that we will soon be subject to mask restrictions again under huge protest and it will much harder to manage for BC Transit.
Keep the masks for transit as all of the above state. Although Dr BH has generally done a fine job on COVID, remember that she was very late to the science of donning masks and I disagree with her again.
“Keep the masks for transit as all of the above state”. Include me in all of the above too. Are you receiving us, Translink? You probably are, but you certainly don’t care. Like you didn’t care when some selfish drivers didn’t want to wear a mask, and you bowed down to the union and gave them the green light to go ahead and potentially infect their riders. All while the destination board reads ‘MASKS MANDATORY’. I am in the same age group of “many of the above”, but unlike many, I am fortunate to have good legs and feet, so I walk. I’m fitter, and I feel safer. Oh, and also, every time I walk – you get nothing and my beer-fund gets a tooney.
Masks were never mandatory in the first place. Individuals got in the bus and Translink all the time without masks and no one stopped them or required it, or even asked if they were exempt (not even going there). I think this is too early too as e we will soon have the UK variant here which is way more transmissible.
I was hoping to start using public transit again, but don’t feel comfortable now that masks are not mandatory.
I’m taking transit almost every day.For the sake of others I will wear my mask in the bus.
Another senior here isn’t comfortable with overcrowded buses.
People have unmasked and are coughing, not into their sleeves either.
Also agree it is too soon to unmask and there is another variant in the midst.
Prefer to have distance between my fellow man as they don’t seem to be as concerned for their health.
Sad state of affairs in my books.
Please people, keep wearing your masks. We are all saving each other.
Fear sells, fear controls. If people want to wear a mask on transit (or anywhere else they may want to) then all the power to you. This is a suggestion, not a requirement to stop wearing your mask. If you feel that it keeps you safe, then keep wearing your mask. Don’t worry about what other folks are doing. Protect yourself, wear a mask if you feel uncomfortable, take the extra jabs, sanitize everything that you might come in contact with, do what you need to do and carry on to keep yourself safe.
removing masks puts alot of people at risk,especially when the busses are so overcrowded. also there are people coughing and sneezing right in you’r face when its standing room only.this is crazy
I’m extremely disappointed to see this. My main use of transit is to go to medical appointments. Most recently to the VGH Lung Clinic. I only finally felt safe riding the bus when they mandated masks after many months of evidence that masks are an effective strategy to protect vulnerable people. Now, while new variants are spreading, abandoning these basic protections is forcing people to face the choice of using unsafe public services, or being denied essential services?
There is no downside to people wearing masks. Everyone needs to breath safely. I look forward to joining in human-rights challenges to prevent this discrimination against vulnerable/elderly/disabled riders who now cannot ride transit.
Buses are more crowded than ever, and too often, windows are not open. I remain double masked, and extremely uncomfortable that so many are rushing to pretend that the pandemic is over. Bad decision TransLink!! Ride a bus and ask the people onboard…
Well you keep double masking and keep virtue signaling then All who feel compelled to still use an ineffective non medical mask. They don’t protect even in surgical rooms for airborne illness, just sputum, sweat or saliva dropletts and other bodily splatter commonly being flung around an operating room. BUT I agree with you on 1 thing….
The windows are not all open on the bus because it’s the end of our winter months here still genius.
More people would become ill from the chill they’d certainly catch having no warm vehicle to travel in. Restricting an otherwise healthy population for a already vulnerable minority is tyranny and nonsensical. You speak about the seniors being so worried and so at risk, well yes that’s a fact due to the risks of doing anything at that age, I saw a woman fall nearly on her face because she was too busy putting her mask on to brace herself when clearly there was a corner.
She certainly didn’t shame me for being mask free 2 months ago when I went to help get her back in her seat and stayed with her to make sure she got off safely at her stop. She cursed the mask that day and said she’d rather live unafraid then die in fear and because I was brave to defend my right to breathe without limitation, she felt inspired to also say No. Shout out to Maureen on the 17 bus who is 78 years old!!
Congratulations to Maureen on the #17!
We need to spend our efforts living and not fighting death.
The masks cause us to be sick more, because they harbour germs and encourage them to grow in a place, where our immune system can’t kill them.