As of Monday (January 31, 2022) at 12:01 a.m. the province entered into step one of their three-step reopening plan.
The plan included the opening of restaurants, recreational facilities, bars, and the increase of indoor and outdoor gathering limits.
Kenora-Rainy River MPP, Greg Rickford said in an interview on Monday (January 31, 2022), the reopening is a “new sensation”.
“It’s a cautious plan to re-open and stay open. The premier recognizes we’re all tired of this, we’ve been more cautious than most jurisdictions. The health and safety of the people of Ontario have been first and foremost,” Rickford said.
Ontario will now allow food and drink services at indoor sporting events, concerts, theatres, and bingo halls, but masks will still be required when residents are not eating or drinking.
Indoor social gathering limits have increased from five people to 10, and restaurants, bars, retailers, museums, religious services, movie theatres, meeting rooms, and event spaces are now able to operate at 50 per cent capacity. Outdoor limits are set at 25 people.
Each step will be in place for a 21-day interval and will continue into the next step if public health indicators keep improving.
Step two will take effect if all goes as planned on February 21, 2022, with step-three beginning on March 14, 2022.
When restrictions do loosen on February 21, 2022, indoor limits are set to move to 25 people, while outdoor limits grow to 100. Ontario may also look at removing capacity limits in indoor public settings where proof of vaccination is required, including restaurants, theatres, and recreational facilities.
Though this plan doesn’t remove all restrictions such as masking, and proof of vaccination on March 14, 2022, Rickford noted this is a good start.
“I think we’ve targeted a fairly normal life by late March. I feel like we’re headed in the right trajectory, and we’ve been cautious no question about it. The data points to prove that Ontario’s fared better than any jurisdiction of its size.”
Ontario will remove all capacity limits in indoor settings as part of step three, but proof of vaccination will still be in effect. Indoor limits will move to 50 people, with no limits outdoors. Capacity limits on religious services would also be lifted.
As of Monday (January 31, 2022), Ontario is reporting fewer than 3,000 people in hospital, which is a decrease to a few weeks ago when nearly 4,000 hospitalizations were reported.
“We feel strongly that will continue to improve in the coming week. We’ve taken a different approach by focusing on hospitalizations rather than COVID-19 cases. This is moving into that endemic stage, and we will treat it as such.”