Premier calls for plan to reopen hot zone businesses

Health officials asked to develop ideas to ‘safely’ ease restrictions

Ontario will decide on a plan next week to ease restrictions in COVID-19 hot zones despite higher daily case numbers than when the measures were imposed Thanksgiving weekend, Premier Doug Ford says.

Ford said he has asked provincial health officials to develop ideas to “safely allow businesses to start opening back up” when the 28 days of measures — including a ban on indoor dining and closings of gyms and theatres — begin expiring next Saturday in Toronto, Peel and Ottawa.

“We’ll find that happy balance,” the premier told a news conference Friday hours after the province reported 896 new cases, the fifth-highest tally of the pandemic.

“We don’t know how long this virus will be with us.”

Ford has been under heavy pressure from the restaurant and fitness industries as well as from within his own caucus of Progressive Conservative MPPs even as COVID-19 numbers continue to climb, but with forecasts showing the rate of growth will slow and hospitals are no longer in danger of being overwhelmed.

The concerns were fuelled Thursday when the province revealed statistics on the source of outbreaks in the hot zones of Toronto, Peel, York, and Ottawa that raised questions about why some restrictions are in place.

In Toronto, for example, bars, restaurants and clubs accounted for 14 per cent of outbreaks since August, compared with just two per cent in Ottawa and three per cent in Peel. Gyms and fitness clubs in Toronto were three per cent of outbreaks, four per cent in Peel and five per cent in Ottawa.

“Half of all independent restaurants are at risk of closing within a year,” warned James Rilett, a vice-president at the industry group Restaurants Canada.

Ford confirmed his goal is to not paint entire health units — such as Toronto — with a “broad brush” with the same measures if pockets are being hard-hit by the virus and others are not.

“I can’t punish everyone … it’s just not fair,” he added.

His plan met with a mixed response amid fears an easing of restrictions could lead to another surge in infections.

“We should not lift restrictions with ‘stable’ case counts in the 800 to 1,200 range.

“That would be a mistake,” Dr. Irfan Dhalla, an internist and vice-president at St. Michael’s Hospital, wrote on Twitter, referring to the province’s computer modelling on the pandemic’s trajectory in the next month.

“We should lift restrictions when we are able to trace almost all cases.”

A further increase in infections, particularly in the wake of Christmas, could lead to “a serious lockdown in January,” said Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist at the University of Toronto.

In Toronto, contact tracers have not been able to keep up with new infections and the source of transmission for 65 per cent of cases is unknown, leaving people who test positive to reach out to their own close contacts.

“Obviously we are having significant community spread of COVID-19 in parts of the province,” acknowledged Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate medical officer of health who appeared at the news conference with Ford.

She would not speculate what form eased restrictions could take, but in other jurisdictions they have included lower capacity limits inside restaurants and requirements to wear masks at all times in gyms.

“The numbers are still going up, but they’re going up slower. So what it’s saying is we can look at, perhaps, modifying the conditions, but that doesn’t mean everyone can loosen up on everything we all need to do,” Yaffe said.

She defended the modified Stage 2 restrictions on restaurants, bars and gyms because they accounted for between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of cases in Toronto when ordered at a time of rapid increase in hospital and intensive care admissions that has since eased.

In Ottawa, where cases have fallen faster than in the GTA, Mayor Jim Watson applauded what Ford called a more “surgical” application of restrictions.

“The way out of this should not be a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Ford has been under heavy pressure from the restaurant and fitness industries