The opposition NDP is voicing their disappointment in the provincial government’s decision to loosen COVID-19 self-isolation guidelines beginning on Friday.  

The government announced that self-isolation periods for those who test positive for COVID-19 would be five days regardless of vaccination status, and close contacts do not need to isolate regardless of vaccination status.  

Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab noted that they are seeing a decrease in the risk of transmission after five days with proper mask usage. Meili felt the logic is flawed.  

“There are very serious questions around the science of the five-day choice, especially as it pertains to those who are not vaccinated and are at higher risk of more severe illness and more likely to be passing on. As a result, those are serious concerns about what this means for further spread,” he said.  

Meili said the only actions the government has taken during the Omicron wave have increased the risk of transmission and hiding information from the public.  

“It's a series of disappointments from this government. We have a government that has made only two kinds of actions during this Omicron wave,” Meili said.   

“A wave that is seeing us certainly with the highest case counts we've ever seen (and it’s) looking like we will very soon have the highest hospitalizations that will lead to loss of life.”  

Because close contacts no longer need to self-isolate, this also means that parents no longer need to notify schools about positive cases for close contact purposes.  

“This strikes me as just completely off base. I've been getting those letters from my kids’ classrooms that there's a COVID case this day, that we're OK for a few days, and that helps me to understand what their level of risk is. It helps me to monitor them more closely,” Meili said.  

The new guidelines come into effect today.