All restaurants and non-essential businesses can reopen on Tuesday.
The province announced Friday the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit will be in the Green-Prevent zone of the province’s reopening framework. The stay-at-home order will expire at 12:01 am Tuesday, February 16th.
Businesses in our area will be allowed to open and be required to conduct passive screening, including asking residents not to enter if they have symptoms of COVID-19.
Organized events at homes, backyards, and parks will be limited to 10 people inside, and 25 outside, and events for staffed business facilities will be limited to 50 people inside, and 100 outside.
Gyms will require screening and also limit their capacity to 50 people inside, and 100 outside.
In restaurants and bars, there will also be passive screening and 2 meters distance between tables.
Meanwhile, screening will also be done in all personal care services, such as hair care and esthetic services.
On Friday, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams announced twenty-seven
The health unit says the announcement recognizes that residents, municipalities, workplaces, businesses, and services have followed public health precautions well to reduce local COVID-19 transmission.
“We are pleased to be returning to the Framework in the Green–Prevent zone,” Medical Officer Dr. Paula Stewart said. “Now is the time for everyone to be COVID-SMART, stay within our health unit region, and support our local businesses and services. For organization and businesses, a COVID Safety Plan that outlines adherence to all required COVID-19 precautions in the Green- Prevent Zone, will keep employees safe, as well as the public.”
The health unit is one of two in the province to be listed in the green-zone, along with the Timiskaming Health Unit. Three others were allowed to reopen on Wednesday.
The province has also introduced an “emergency brake” for the reopening of all areas of the province. That brake will be pulled if the number of new COVID-19 cases starts to spike in any region, especially where a variant may be spreading. The emergency brake will move an area from any level of the province’s framework into the Grey-Lockdown level to control the spread of the virus.
On Monday, Health Minister Christine Elliott said this is not a reopening or a return to normal, but rather an acknowledgment that steady progress is being made to flatten the curve of cases in Ontario.
On Thursday, Dr. Adalsteinn Brown of Ontario’s COVID-19 Advisory Table says cases and hospitalizations are going down, but a third wave and lockdown are a very serious threat right now because of the spread of the variants.
New modeling data shows the increased spread of the variant will likely result in another surge of cases in late February.
