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Vancouver residents continue to wear face masks after B.C. mandate lifted: poll

It's been several weeks since British Columbia ended its mandatory face mask policy as part of the province's ongoing management of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Lindsay William-Ross
Lindsay William-Ross
woman-face-mask-shopping
A woman wears a non-medical face mask while grocery shopping. A recent V.I.A. reader poll indicates more than half of Vancouver residents are voluntarily continuing to wear face masks in public places despite the provincial health order mandating their use being lifted in early March. File photo: iStock/Getty Images

It's been several weeks since British Columbia ended its mandatory face mask policy as part of the province's ongoing management of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

But in Vancouver, particularly on increasingly crowded buses and SkyTrains and in stores and restaurants, many locals are still donning the face coverings voluntarily.

Vancouver Is Awesome polled readers and asked: Do you still wear a face mask when out in public and/or indoor spaces?

More than half of the respondents indicated they continue to wear face masks just like when it was mandated (53.87 per cent).

An additional 26.18 per cent of respondents to the poll said they voluntarily wear a face masks sometimes, depending on the situation.

Just 7.48 per cent of poll-takers indicated they have stopped wearing a face mask entirely, while 2.99 per cent said they never wore one to begin with.

In early March, V.I.A. polled local readers and found that about 42 per cent of local respondents indicated they would either continue to mask up across the board (20.67 per cent) or at least put on a mask in some situations (21.88 per cent). 

While the B.C. mask mandate is no more, some locations will still require people to wear face masks, such as in health care settings. 

However, as hospitalizations for COVID infections are on the uptick, according to B.C.'s weekly data updates, and as many B.C. residents are becoming infected or have friends, relatives, or colleagues who are, it may not surprise many that Vancouverites are opting to put on face masks in indoor spaces as a layer of protection.

Vancouver Is Awesome polled 737 Vancouver Is Awesome readers and asked the question: Do you still wear a face mask when out in public and/or indoor spaces?

The poll ran from 4/18/2022 to 4/21/2022. Of the 737 votes, we can determine that 401 are from within the community. The full results are as follows:

Yes, I wear my mask indoors like when it was mandated 53.87 % local, 50.47 % total    
Sometimes I voluntarily wear one, depending on the situation 26.18 % local, 26.59 % total    
Only where the location requires it, never voluntarily 9.23 % local, 8.41 % total    
No, I have stopped wearing mine 7.48 % local, 11.67 % total    
I never wore one before 2.99 % local, 2.85 % total    
  Local   Total

Results are based on an online study of adult Vancouver Is Awesome readers that are located in Vancouver. The margin of error - which measures sample variability - is +/- 3.61%, 19 times out of 20.

Vancouver Is Awesome uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.