Members of Ontario’s outgoing science table say they would have advised against the province’s decision to scrap COVID-19 isolation requirements if they were consulted on the move.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore said this week that those who test positive for COVID-19 no longer need to isolate for five days.

Under new guidelines, people should stay home until their fever clears and their symptoms have improved for at least 24 hours but they should wear a mask “in any setting” for 10 full days.

Dr. Fahad Razak, the scientific director for the table that’s set to be dissolved next week, says he disagrees with the province’s scrapping of isolation requirements.

Razak, a Univeristy of Toronto professor and an internist at St. Michael’s Hospital, says he favours more stringent rules including masking indoors as a way to limit spread of COVID-19, which will help ease the burden on the health-care system.

He spoke with Libby Znaimer on Zoomer Radio’s Fight Back.

“My personal feeling is that right now, removing these requirements potentially puts us as at a higher risk going into the fall, but time will tell whether that’s the case.”

Dr. Gerald Evans, a science table member who also teaches at Queen’s University, says it’s too early to lift the isolation rule, particularly with school resuming and a busy fall and winter respiratory illness season expected.

The Canadian Press with files from Zoomer Radio