‘Efforts paying off’ in Ontario
Canada’s largest province is moving to reopen its economy, as Ontario Premier Doug Ford released a long list of workplaces that can reopen on Tuesday and some outdoor activities — including golf — that can start on Saturday.
The new list is “Stage 1” of Ontario’s plan to reopen, and comes after the province has seen a slow but steady reduction in daily new COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks. On Tuesday it announced 258 new cases, its lowest number since late March.
“Today’s news is good news,” Ford said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. “Our efforts are paying off and if we follow the medical advice, if we take our time and get it right, then we’ll be able to open more businesses, get more people back to work.
“We have a long way to go, we have a long road to recovery. But let’s take some time today and be grateful for how far we all have come.”
The new rules allow retail stores with a street-front entrance to open but with conditions, which could include: limiting the number of customers in a store at any one time or by square metre; booking appointments beforehand or on the spot; and continuing to encourage curbside pickups or deliveries.
Media operations will be allowed to start up again including music recording, interactive digital media, film and television post-production and animation studios. Publishing operations, including newspapers, video games and books, will also be allowed to open.
Some seasonal recreation and sports activities will be allowed to start as early as Saturday, including golf courses, marinas, and private parks and campgrounds.
Individual sports permitted to resume include water sports on lakes and outdoor bodies of water ( but not swimming pools); low- contact racket sports such as tennis, badminton, pickleball and Ping- Pong; athletics, such as track and field, gymnastics and figure skating; and animal- related sports such as horse racing.
Many health services will be allowed to start up again, including some surgeries that were paused to make room for COVID-19 patients. In- person counselling may resume, and regular veterinary appointments can be made again.
The list also allows for domestic services, such as housekeepers and cooks, and lifts limits on maintenance, repair and property management services. Car dealerships may reopen and all construction work can resume. Libraries can do pickups and deliveries.
But the list does not include restaurants or barbershops and salons. Limits on gatherings are also staying in place for now.
“We know that’s one of the things that are most important to people, that they do want to be able to see their friends and family,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said. “We don’t have the final answer yet ( on when it can happen), but we are studying it very carefully, because we know especially with the warm weather coming forward that’s what people want to hear about.”
David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer, later added that he hopes to provide an update on social gatherings as soon as next week.
Ontario’s reopening plan has three stages, each of which is planned to last two to four weeks before the next may start. However, Ford cautioned that there is no firm timeline for moving to the next stage; it will depend on the case numbers.
“We have to see a trend for a couple of weeks. So there’s no time frame on stage two, it will take as long as it takes to get the numbers down consistently over a coupleweek period,” Ford said.
Ontario reported 33 more deaths on Thursday. It has a total of 21,494 cases including Thursday’s 258 new cases, which is a 1.2 per cent increase over the previous day — the lowest growth rate since early March. The total includes 1,798 deaths and 16,204 cases that have been resolved, which is now more than 75 per cent of the total.
Nearly 17,500 tests for COVID-19 were completed in the previous day, as the province works toward a goal of processing 20,000 per day.
Elliott said the reopening is assisted by the fact Ontario will be expanding testing so that anyone with symptoms gets a test. Previous testing guidelines relied on “clinical assessments” of patients, while also prioritizing certain groups such as front-line workers, people in long-term care and essential workers.
“We have virtually completed the testing of all longterm care residents and staff,” she said. “We’re now moving to other congregate settings such as retirement homes, group homes, shelters. But we also know that now that we’re opening up parts of the economy, we need to do more public- surveillance testing to understand what effect these openings are having on the public. So we need to have that data.”