Restaurants, gyms open in Ontario as restrictions ease

Ontario’s gradual reopening plan begins on Monday with many businesses welcoming back patrons for the first time in nearly a month.

Indoor dining at restaurants and bars, gyms and cinemas have reopened at 50 per cent capacity after being shuttered due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

Larger venues now have capacity limits of 50 per cent or 500 people — whichever is fewer. Limits on indoor gatherings have increased from five to 10 people, while outdoor gatherings go up from 10 to 25.

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Businesses will also no longer be required to collect customer information for contact tracing, the province says this will allow them to focus their efforts on enforcing other public health measures that remain in place, such as masking.

Food and drink service will resume at indoor sporting events, concert venues, theatres and cinemas. Individuals can remove their masks when eating or drinking but will be required to remain seated when doing so. Masks continue to be required when individuals are not eating or drinking.

The province is removing the legal requirement to work from home except where necessary. Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kieran Moore said last week that those who are able to work from home should continue to do so in order to limit mobility and reduce the number of daily contacts.

During his briefing last week, Moore said it’s time for a balanced response to reopening and managing the virus in the province..

“We have to understand with Omicron that we can’t eliminate this threat, in fact, we have to learn to live with it,” said Moore while outlining the new public health measures that took effect Monday.

The province plans to ease COVID-19 measures further on Feb. 21, and further again on March 14. The province has been in a modified Step 2 of the reopening plan since Jan. 5..

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.

With files from the Canadian Press