Ontario vaccine certificates to remain in place past Jan. 17

Amid rising COVID-19 cases, the province of Ontario will not be phasing out vaccine certificates in some settings next month as originally planned.

Health Minister Christine Elliott announced the extension alongside Dr. Kieran Moore on Friday.

In its reopening plan document released in October the province said in the “absence of concerning trends” it was scheduled to begin lifting vaccine certificate requirements at restaurants and bars, sports and recreational facilities and casinos and bingo halls on the Jan. 17.

“Ontario, like other jurisdictions around the world, is seeing concerning trends in public health and health care indicators, and additional measures are required to protect our progress for the long-term,” said Dr. Moore in a statement.

The province’s proof-of-vaccination system will also be updated on Jan. 4 so that the certificate equipped with a QR code is the only version accepted.

The QR codes, rolled out a month after an initial PDF version of the certificate, are said to be much harder to fake.

The province has come under fire in recent weeks for continuing to accept the easily photoshopped PDFs.

Starting on Dec. 15, the province will begin a new process of providing QR codes for individuals who have a medical exemption. People who have eligible medical exemptions must ask a doctor or nurse to submit the exemption directly to their public health unit.

Moore also “strongly advised” people to limit the size of their holiday gatherings and ensure everyone attending is vaccinated. Ontario employers are also being urged to have their employees work from home.

Omicron was first detected in Ontario in late November, but already accounts for about 10 per cent of daily new COVID-19 cases, Moore said.

That’s expected to increase to 20 per cent in the coming days before becoming the dominant strain – “as in complete strain replacement of Delta,” Moore said – by the beginning of January.

“What we’ve seen is just a sudden escalation in multiple health units where we’re seeing this activity increase,” he said.

Moore said the province is “reviewing the definition” of what it means to be fully vaccinated, and three doses could become the standard, depending on what the data shows about the COVID-19 vaccines’ effectiveness against the Omicron variant.

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The Ford government is also not planning to close schools to in-person learning, even though COVID cases hit their highest mark yet in schools during the pandemic.

The announcement comes on the same day Ontario reported its highest daily COVID-19 case count in more than six months, with 1,453 cases. The rolling seven-day average of cases has reached 1,115.

Earlier this week, Ontario’s Science Advisory Table projected daily cases could spike to 3,000 per day by mid-January and even without taking the new Omicron variant into account, ICU occupancy will likely grow to 250-400 beds in January, putting hospitals under strain to keep up.

On Tuesday, Ontario announced it was extending its pause on lifting capacity limits in high-risk settings where proof of vaccination is required.

The settings where capacity limits will remain include, night clubs, wedding receptions in meeting/event spaces where there is dancing, strip clubs, and sex clubs and bathhouses. The province initially intended on removing the capacity limits on those settings on Nov. 15, but paused the gradual reopening on Nov. 10 “out of an abundance of caution.”

On Monday, Health Minister Christine Elliott hinted that Ontario’s reopening plans must remain flexible in light of the surge in cases and new Omicron variant.

“We’re planning to start lifting things but if this Omicron variant circulates widely, and if it’s a virulent as it has been in other jurisdictions, we are going to need to take a look at that,” she said.

With files from Michael Ranger of CityNews and The Canadian Press