Restaurants, gyms to reopen Jan. 31 as Ford announces gradual easing of COVID restrictions

Earlier this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford tried to dig cars out of the snow with a tiny shovel. On Thursday, he tried to dig the province out of the mound of COVID restrictions that have left businesses knee-deep in debt.

Saying the worst of the pandemic “is behind us” Ford announced the gradual easing of public health measures in three phases, beginning on January 31 when gyms and restaurants will reopen at 50 per cent capacity and gathering limits will increase to 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors. (full list below).

Sporting and concert venues, as well as theatres, can also open their doors at half capacity or 500 people, whichever is less.

After the 31st, more restrictions will be eased in three-week intervals on February 21, and March 14 when capacity limits in all indoor settings will be lifted.

“The evidence tells us that the measures we put in place to the blunt transmission of Omicron are working,” Ford said. “We can be confident that the worst is behind us and that we are now in a position to cautiously and gradually ease public health measures. While February will continue to present its own challenges, given current trends these are challenges we are confident we can manage.”

Ford stressed that if the numbers start going up again, the province is ready and willing to hit the brakes.

“If that means pausing between steps for a few extra days, we won’t hesitate to do so,” he said.

One Toronto restaurant said it wouldn’t be opening its dining room at half capacity, since at those levels labour costs exceed sales.

“Can’t profit at that level nor do I think our customers are ready,” Bistro on Avenue tweeted. “We have managed to keep our staff healthy with takeout and delivery and will continue with that for a few months.”

Ellis Jacob, the president and CEO of Cineplex, said while he’s “thrilled” to open the doors again on Jan. 31, it is disappointing that they won’t be able to serve food or drinks in theatres until Feb. 21.

“We’ll keep our poppers warm so we are ready for when these unwarranted restrictions lift,” he said in a statement.

Rocco Rossi, president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, said he is glad to see clarity from the government, but urged a longer-term plan to manage any future waves.

“We are calling for investments in testing capacity and business supports to foster a sustained reopening guided by evidence and science,” he said in a statement.

The province has been in a modified Step 2 of the “Road to Reopen Plan” since Jan. 5, closing restaurants to in-person dining, shutting gyms and putting a 50 per cent capacity on retail.

The restrictions were scheduled to be in place until at least Jan. 26.

On Thursday, Ontario reported the lowest COVID-19 test positivity rate in nearly a month, with hospitalizations and ICU admissions remaining stable.

The province’s new three-phased plan will roll out as follows:

January 31, 2022

Effective January 31, 2022 at 12:01 a.m. Ontario will begin the process of gradually easing restrictions while maintaining protective measures, including but not limited to:

• Increasing social gathering limits to 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors.
• Increasing or maintaining capacity limits at 50 per cent in indoor public settings, including but not limited to:
• Restaurants, bars and other food or drink establishments without dance facilities;
• Retailers (including grocery stores and pharmacies)
• Shopping malls;
• Non-spectator areas of sports and recreational fitness facilities, including gyms;
• Cinemas;
• Meeting and event spaces;
• Recreational amenities and amusement parks, including water parks;
• Museums, galleries, aquariums, zoos and similar attractions; and
• Casinos, bingo halls and other gaming establishments
• Religious services, rites, or ceremonies.
• Allowing spectator areas of facilities such as sporting events, concert venues and theatres to operate at 50 per cent seated capacity or 500 people, whichever is less.

February 21, 2022

Effective February 21, 2022, Ontario will lift public health measures, including:

• Increasing social gathering limits to 25 people indoors and 100 people outdoors.
• Removing capacity limits in indoor public settings where proof of vaccination is required, including but not limited to restaurants, indoor sports and recreational facilities, cinemas, as well as other settings that choose to opt-in to proof of vaccination requirements.
• Permitting spectator capacity at sporting events, concert venues, and theatres at 50 per cent capacity.
• Limiting capacity in most remaining indoor public settings where proof of vaccination is not required to the number of people that can maintain two metres of physical distance.
• Indoor religious services, rites or ceremonies limited to the number that can maintain two metres of physical distance, with no limit if proof of vaccination is required.
• Increasing indoor capacity limits to 25 per cent in the remaining higher-risk settings where proof of vaccination is required, including nightclubs, wedding receptions in meeting or event spaces where there is dancing, as well as bathhouses and sex clubs.

Enhanced proof of vaccination and other requirements would continue to apply in existing settings.

March 14, 2022

Effective March 14, 2022, Ontario will take additional steps to ease public health measures, including:

• Lifting capacity limits in all indoor public settings. Proof of vaccination will be maintained in existing settings in addition to other regular measures.
• Lifting remaining capacity limits on religious services, rites, or ceremonies.
• Increase social gathering limits to 50 people indoors with no limits for outdoor gatherings.

Dr. Gerald Evans, an infectious diseases physician and member of Ontario’s science advisory table, said the timing of Ford’s plan strikes him as a bit too early. It’s based on an estimation that Ontario is hitting an Omicron peak, he said.

“The modelling is getting to be a lot more difficult because we’re not testing people as much as we did,” Evans said. “It will be very difficult over the following two to three weeks to follow what impact (a reopening stage) has had.”

Schools have only just reopened for in-person learning this week, Evans noted.

“Around Jan. 31 was where we would be expecting to be able to measure what that impact was, and again, it’s hard to do when you don’t have as much testing as you possibly can.”

PCR testing has been limited to high-risk groups and doesn’t include school staff or students unless they develop symptoms while at school.

NON-URGENT SURGERY RESTRICTIONS TO CONTINUE

When Ford announced the latest restrictions on Jan. 3, they included a hospital directive to pause all non-urgent surgeries and procedures. Health Minister Christine Elliott said Thursday it is still too soon to lift that order because the peak of the admissions to ICU likely won’t happen until mid-February.

“As soon as we can see that the numbers are going down both in terms of admissions to hospital and in terms of intensive care admissions, then we’ll be able to get back on track with those surgeries and procedures,” she said.

Restrictions on visiting long-term care homes – 56 per cent of facilities in the province have a COVID-19 outbreak – will also remain, said Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health.

“I think it’s prudent to keep those restrictions that are in place until we see significant improvement in the transmissibility and activity of Omicron in our community,” he said.

UPDATING VACCINE CERTIFICATES

Both NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca called for the vaccine certificates to require third doses, saying it would help encourage more people to get booster shots.

“I believe that is our best way to make sure that as a province we don’t slip backwards,” Del Duca said.

Evans also said three doses should now be the definition of fully vaccinated.

The science table has said two doses of COVID-19 vaccine are only 35 per cent effective against the Omicron variant three months after being administered, while a third dose bumps efficacy to 75 per cent.

Premier Ford shot down that suggestion, telling reporters that his government has no plans to add a third dose at this point.