Premier Doug Ford and his conservative government have eased some COVID-19 restrictions, including placing an end date on the current stay at home order and not extending the state of emergency, All while warning, “we’re not clear of the storm yet.”
Monday afternoon, the conservative government announced an end to the stay-at-home order, which came into effect for the second time this past Boxing day. The order’s end date is February 16 for all public health units except the following three, Toronto, York and Peel, slated for February 22.
The state of emergency initially to end on February 9 will not be extended. “Today I’m announcing the declaration of emergency will not be extended past February 9, we’re maintaining shutdown measures in the majority of the public health regions in Ontario for a short time. But we will look to gradually and safely transition all regions to revise stronger COVID-19 Response Framework.” Said Ford.
Ford’s announcement began on a positive note stating, “Today we’re seeing some sunlight break through the clouds.” Announced Ford starting his address on a positive note, “Daily case numbers are down, transmission rates are down, less people are being hospitalized. My Friends, the measures are working. Staying home is saving lives. And I want to thank team Ontario-Every single person for doing your part for following the public health measures. Together, we’re bending the curve. We’re protecting our hospitals, and we’re looking out for our most vulnerable.”
Before addressing the on-going uncertainty of the virus, “But my friends were not clear of the storm yet hospitals in some parts of the province are still under immense pressure. We’re getting hit with new variants of COVID-19. And there’s significant delays in getting our vaccine supply by friends. This is a critical time. We can find a way forward. But we need a plan that continues to protect the health and safety of each and every person in this province, while ensuring more businesses can safely reopened and getting more people back to work.”
Other positive news included the announcement for ‘Non-Essential Businesses’ being granted the greenlit to reopen but a 25% capacity. “For those business owners who are struggling. I want you to know that we listened. We’ve been working day and night to find every possible way to safely allow more businesses to reopen. And now we’re taking decisive action. Under the revised framework. We’ll be allowing non-essential retail businesses to reopen with stronger restrictions, including capacity limits, even in the gray lockdown zones. I’m confident with this revised framework in place with mandatory testing at our borders and a strong plan to stop the spread these new variants, we will be able to protect our people, our frontline heroes, our communities and our businesses, but it’s still up the each one of us…” said Ford.
The province is working with public health to create a revised framework for reopening, which is expected to be announced before the stay-at-home order ends. However, the province is expected to continue using its six-point plan (mandatory testing for travellers, enhanced screening and sequencing, maintain public health measures, strengthen case and contact management, enhancing protections for vulnerable populations and leveraging data) alongside the revised framework now that more variants of concern are being reported including a Brazilian variant of the COVID-19 virus.
