Peterborough back to yellow zone Tuesday
Restaurants, bars, hair salons, arenas get green light; City hall to reopen Feb. 22 and library on Feb. 23
Peterborough city and county will be in the yellow protect zone when the provincewide COVID-19 stay-at-home lockdown ends Tuesday, while the City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County and Haliburton County will be in the orange restrict zone with more restrictions.
That means stores, restaurants, bars, hair salons, recreation facilities, performing arts facilities, casinos, bingo halls and movie theatres will be able to reopen starting Tuesday, with COVID-19 precautions in place, and people will be allowed to leave their homes.
The Ontario government announced the zones on Friday afternoon.
While three regions in eastern Ontario — Hastings Prince Edward; Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington; and Renfrew County — returned to the green prevent zone on Wednesday, the lockdown will end for most Ontario regions on Tuesday, the day after the Family Day provincial holiday. But four regions will remain on lockdown until Feb. 22: Toronto, Peel Region, York Region and the North Bay-Parry Sound (where there has been many COVID-19 variant cases).
On Tuesday, Brant County; eastern Ontario; Haldimand-Norfolk; Huron Perth; Lambton; Ottawa; Sudbury; Porcupine and Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District health units will be in the orange restrict zone.
Algoma; Grey Bruce; Northwestern and Peterborough health units will be in the
yellow zone, while Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District, and Timiskaming health units will be in the least-restrictive green category.
Earlier Friday, Peterborough medical officer of health Dr. Rosana Salvaterra explained that Peterborough’s case level has been trending at the green level this week, but was likely to reopen at the yellow level initially because provincial officials look for consistent lower cases before declaring the green level.
“I know many Peterboroughians see this as a matter of civic pride because it does take so much sacrifice and we should be proud that as of this week we are trending in green,” Salvaterra told reporters during a teleconference briefing on the pandemic Friday.
“The approach that we have been taking with the framework is slow to go down and quick to go up. If we need to stay in green another week to prove that this is where we belong, that’s fine.”
Tuesday’s reopening means a return to indoor gatherings of up to 10 people and outdoor gatherings of 25 people, public events of up to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors and religious, wedding and funeral services of up to 30 per cent capacity indoors and 100 people outdoors.
One big difference with this reopening is that the province is emphasizing even more that people must maintain two-metre distancing at all times at gatherings and wear a face mask, with even masking outdoors now recommended, Salvaterra said.
The yellow zone means that bars and restaurants must close by midnight, can’t sell alcohol after 11 p.m. and can’t let anyone drink after midnight.
The yellow zone also means that everyone must give their contact information for tracing when attending places like cinemas, bingo halls, casinos, performing arts facilities and meeting spaces.
Those facilities will also have a 50-person capacity limit (50 people per auditorium in cinemas).
Salvaterra cautioned people Friday that they must still abide by the stay-at-home lockdown rules over the Family Day long weekend.
That literally means you can’t visit family members for Family Day except for the family members in your immediate household.
“That means no visiting with family outside your household group,” Salvaterra said.
The city announced Friday afternoon that the move to the yellow zone will mean that city arenas will reopen Tuesday with previously scheduled bookings and COVID-19 measures in place.
The Evinrude Banquet Hall and Kinsmen Boardroom remain closed, along with public access to the arena division customer service office.
New ice rental requests for city arenas beyond March 31 will not be accepted until further notice. The city will announced spring and summer facility availability at a later date.
The Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre will reopen Feb. 16 with weekday hours of 6 a.m. to noon and 3:30 to 10:30 p.m. and weekend hours of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
City hall will reopen Feb. 22 with limited in-person services by appointment only in the city clerk’s office and the reception area in building services open for infrastructure and planning services customers.
City council’s Feb. 22 meeting will remain virtual and a date for the return to in-person council meetings has not yet been determined.
The Peterborough Public Library main branch will reopen for browsing on Feb. 23 with COVID-19 measures in place. Curbside pickup service will continue until Feb. 20.
The Art Gallery of Peterborough will reopen on Feb. 18 for by-appointment visits only.
The Peterborough Museum and Archives will reopen for by appointment visits starting Feb. 22.
The Downtown Youth Space at 201 McDonnel St. will reopen Feb. 18 and operate Tuesdays to Fridays between 3 and 6 p.m.
The social services office at the Charlotte Mews will reopen to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays after maintaining two-at-a-time service during the lockdown.
The public works administration office at 791 Webber Ave. will remain closed to the public.
The city’s COVID-19 planning group has been discussing whether to lift the city’s state of emergency, which was declared nearly a year ago. It was discussed Friday and will be discussed again next week, Mayor Diane Therrien told The Examiner.