Published Monday, February 8, 2021 5:45AM EST
Last Updated Monday, February 8, 2021 2:03PM EST
As of 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, the province's stay-at-home order will be lifted for three public health units in eastern Ontario, including Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, Kingston, Frontenac, and Lennox & Addington Public Health, and Renfrew County Public Health.
The three regions will be moved to the province's green or "prevent" zone, which will allow businesses, including all retail shops, hair salons, restaurants, bars, gyms and movie theatres to reopen, and private indoor gatherings to resume. With the exception of Toronto, Peel Region, and York Region, the Ford government's stay-at-home order will be lifted for the remaining 28 public health units on Feb.16, at which point the regions will be subsequently be placed in the appropriate colour-coded category in the reopening framework.
The decision on whether to lift restrictions will be "subject to final review of the trends and public health indicators," Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said at a news conference on Monday.
The move comes as highly-infectious coronavirus variants are appearing in smaller, more remote areas of the province.
"In Timiskaming Health Unit, a confirmed COVID-19 test has screened positive for a possible variant of concern. In North Bay, the public health unit has identified a COVID-19 cluster with one test returning a preliminary confirmation of a variant of concern," Elliott said.
"I know there were some reports over the weekend of Timiskaming moving back to the framework this week, however with these dangerous variants potentially circulating in these communities, now is not the time to roll back public health measures. This decision is supported by the local medical officers of health."
Provincial officials did not supply any criteria Monday that will be used to determine which of the five tiers each of the 31 other public health regions of Ontario would be placed.
"I know that many areas are wanting to know where they are going to be. Whether they are going to go back to green or where they are in the framework that we've already set up. But we need to watch it very carefully and we need to get the numbers down in our hospitals. In some parts of the province, the numbers are still very, very high," Elliott said.
"And with the variants of concern, we also want to see, for example in North Bay and Timiskaming, what's happening in those units, how quickly this variant is going to spread, because the health and safety of all Ontarians is our priority and the variants of concern can increase the rates exponentially. So that's why we want to wait a week."
Further loosening of public health measures for any region of Ontario will be restricted for at least 28 days after the last public health unit returns to the reopening framework.
While the framework remains relatively unchanged from when it was first announced by the province last year, all types of retailers, including ones deemed to be non-essential, will now be permitted to open in regions in the grey or "lockdown" zone.
Pharmacies, convenience stores and stores that primarily sell groceries can operate in grey zones with 50 per cent of regular indoor capacity while all other retailers, including big box stores, can operate at 25 per cent capacity.
"We are not out of the woods yet and I'm still concerned about these variants," Premier Doug Ford said at Queen's Park on Monday. "If we see the numbers spike again, we are prepared to take further action as necessary."
The province said it has an "emergency brake system" in place that will allow officials to take "immediate action" if there is a rapid acceleration of COVID-19 transmission in a given region.
The chief medical officer of health can immediately move a region into the lockdown zone to slow transmission of the novel coronavirus.
“While we are seeing our numbers trend in the right direction, our situation remains precarious as the variants of concern remain a serious risk,” said Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, said in a news release.
“This is not a re-opening or a ‘return to normal’ and we must continue to limit close contact to our immediate households and stay at home except for essential reasons.”
Officials said the provincial state of emergency declared last month will not be renewed and is set to expire on Tuesday.
Ontario has been in lockdown since Boxing Day, and on Jan. 12, the province declared a second state of emergency over rising cases of COVID-19.
A provincewide stay-at-home order also prohibited people from going out except for essential purposes, such as exercising, attending medical appointments, or buying groceries.
The easing of restrictions comes as in-person learning resumes across the province. Students throughout Ontario, with the exception of Toronto, Peel, and York, were back in the classroom today following a nearly six-week pause on in-person instruction due to rising COVID-19 case counts.
Prior to Ford's announcement on Monday, Toronto Mayor John Tory said he thought allowing non-essential retail to open for customers would be a logical place to start when considering how to ease public health restrictions in Ontario.
“The retail side might get some dispensation to allow some people inside their stores which I think would be terrific because they’ve been operating under a somewhat unfair regime where big box stores were able to have people (inside) while they remained closed,” he said.
On Monday morning, Liberal leader Steven Del Duca urged Ford to allow small businesses to reopen for in-person shopping like big box stores have been allowed to operate throughout the state of emergency.
“Small business owners and their employees have been devastated by closures, all the while their Big Box competition has held near-monopolies on the economy,” he said.
Ontario's chief medical officer of health had previously said he would like to see daily cases in the province fall below 1,000 per day before relaxing any measures. The province has reported between 1,000 to 1,600 cases per day over the past week.
University Health Network infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch, who also sits on the province's COVID-19 vaccine task force, said the reopening must be timed carefully this time around, as we risk increasing the average person’s daily contacts just as remaining schools reopen, and more transmissible coronavirus variants of concern become more prevalent in Ontario.
“I think it’s very reasonable for the kids to be in school for a little bit before we take those gradual next steps in reopening.”