Ontario to begin lifting long-term care restrictions Monday

Ontario will start to ease some COVID-19 restrictions at long-term care settings next week with subsequent measures easing in the coming weeks.

Starting on Monday, the number of caregivers per resident will increase from two to four, but will still be limited to two caregivers at one time.

Residents who have at least three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine will also be allowed to resume day trips.

“Our government responded swiftly to the Omicron variant to protect the health and safety of residents and staff in long-term care homes,” said Long-Term Care Minister Paul Calandra in a statement.

“With public health and health care indicators now improving, we are cautiously lifting these measures so our residents can spend time with more friends and family that play such an important role in their health and wellbeing.”

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More restrictions will lift two weeks later on Feb. 21, when fully vaccinated people who are aged five and older will be allowed to visit their loved ones. The number of visitors allowed at a time will increase from two to three.

At that time, all residents will be able to resume social day trips regardless of their vaccine status and those who have three doses will be able to make overnight trips.

On March 14, all residents will be able to make overnight trips regardless of their vaccine status and children under five will be allowed to visit loved ones again. The number of visitors per resident will increase from three to four.

The current restrictions, including a pause on access to long-term care facilities for general visitors, took effect in late December as a response to a COVID-19 surge cause by the Omicron variant.

More than 56 per cent of the province’s long-term care homes were reporting virus outbreaks as of Monday and 129 deaths were reported among residents over the past week.

Resident cases have been close to the numbers seen in early 2020 when outbreaks and infections ravaged the province’s long-term care homes, prompting the province to request military assistance.

The province recently extended the deadline for workers to get mandatory third COVID-19 vaccine shots until March 14. Staff in the sector had initially been given until last Friday to get booster shots in order to stay on the job.