Toronto ready for ‘grey zone,’ health official says

But de Villa cautions that relaxing some rules for city will be

Small Toronto retailers, including those in malls, will soon be allowed to reopen with capacity limits if Premier Doug Ford follows new advice from the city’s public health chief.

Dr. Eileen de Villa told reporters Wednesday that, when the stay-at-home order ends, Toronto should be in the “greylockdown” zone where non-essential shops can reopen — but with only 25 per cent of normal customer capacity.

Big-box stores would also be limited to 25 per cent of normal indoor capacity. Grocery stores, pharmacies and convenience stores can have 50-per-cent capacity.

“Moving out of the stay-athome order is a reasonable course of action for Toronto,” de Villa said at a briefing, adding that relaxing some rules will be a “delicate balance.”

“We are on the cusp of taking a much wanted step toward a little more flexibility in our daily lives … but the steps for selfprotection are more valuable and vital than ever.”

She noted the number of suspected variant cases have more than doubled in a week.

“The variant figure is not what I want to see,” she said, noting that moving into the grey zone and further reopening is contingent on case counts continuing to go down and variant spread being controlled.

If Ford accepts de Villa’s advice, and the same grey-zone request from Peel Region’s Dr.

Lawrence Loh, Toronto and Peel could emerge as early as Tuesday from 100-plus days of shutdown into slightly less restrictive lockdown.

Restaurants and bars would remain takeout and delivery only until Toronto moves into one of the less restrictive zones — red-control, orange-restrict, yellow-protect or green-prevent.

Likewise for gyms and hair salons and other “personal care services,” which are also closed in the grey zone.

Amid lingering concerns over increased spread in highly transmissible variants, de Villa is also issuing orders for increased measures to prevent workplace infections.

Mayor John Tory said he supported de Villa’s recommendations Wednesday.

“I believe this is the right approach and it is based on the public health advice we have relied on throughout this pandemic to save lives and protect people,” he said.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said she’s sticking with a plea to Ford to move her city to the less restrictive red zone which allows, with limits, indoor dining and the reopening of gyms and salons.

If Toronto and Peel move into the grey zone next week, other rules include:

> No organized indoor events. Organized outdoor events of 10 people with physical distancing.

> Religious services, weddings and funerals with physical distancing with up to 10 people, whether indoors or outdoors.

> Outdoor recreational amenities including ice rinks, ski hills and snow trails can open with restrictions, including no team sports.

Sports facilities remain closed except for those used for specified purposes including day camps and child care.

> Community centres including YMCAs allowed to open for specific activities including day camps and social services but not fitness activities.

Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, head of the city’s COVID-19 emergency response team, told Wednesday’s briefing he expects the city to have significant supplies of vaccine to launch a mass immunization by late March.

Asked about roughly 114,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses Ontario is supposed to receive any day, and then distribute to local health units, Pegg said he had no further information and it’s up to the province to decide how much Toronto gets.