Doubt Ford, Ontario’s premier, says the province needs to “learn to live with” COVID-19.
Ford made the remarks in an interview aired on a local Peterborough, Ont., Radio station on Friday, a day after the province’s top doctor made similar remarks.
Asked if Ontario’s reopening plan would work well, Ford said he was confident it would be because virus testing positivity has declined since public health restrictions went into effect earlier this month.
Restrictions on businesses such as restaurants, gyms and theaters will be eased on Monday, allowing such venues to open with capacity restrictions.
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Ford said restrictions imposed this month on blunting a wave of Omicron infections were working.
He noted that his government’s plan involves reopening caution, with initially 50 per cent capacity constraints in place, and said the province should learn to live with the virus in order to return to normal.
“There is no one in this province who wants to open faster than I do,” Ford told PTBO Today Radio. “I want to get back to normal. We have to learn to live with this and get things back to normal and we will get out of there. ”
The province’s chief medical officer of health also noted on Thursday that it is necessary to find a balance between living with the virus and reopening carefully.
“In the face of Omicron, I think absolutely … we need to learn to live with this virus,” said Dr. Kieran Moore said during a weekly news conference about the pandemic.
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3,535 people in Ontario hospitals with COVID, 607 in intensive care
“We’ve had our lives controlled for the last two years in a considerable degree of fear and now we’re going to have to change some of that thinking.”
Moore noted that the highly transmissible Omicron variant has changed the situation and also highlights vaccines and treatments for infection that have become available since the pandemic began two years ago.
Ford said Friday it is pleased the province is allowing businesses to reopen, even with capacity constraints. He added that he understood the financial problems faced by small business owners during the pandemic and asked Ontarians to support them when they reopened.
“I encourage everyone to get out there on Monday. Go for dinner, get takeaways. Support the small businesses, ”he said.
Some surgeries that were interrupted during the Omicron wave in an effort to preserve the capacity of the health care system will also be able to resume on Monday. Restrictions on social gatherings will also increase.
Ontario reported 607 people in intensive care on Friday with COVID-19 and a total of 3,535 hospitalized patients.
This was lower than 3,645 people admitted to the hospital the previous day with the disease and higher than 599 patients in ICU.
There were 387 patients on ventilators due to the disease, and the province also reported 67 more deaths due to the virus that occurred in the past month.
5,337 new COVID-19 cases have been reported, but the actual number is likely to be higher due to a limited testing policy.
Fifteen more deaths among long-term care residents have been reported since the last daily update and 56 percent of long-term care homes have experienced COVID-19 outbreaks since Friday.
© 2022 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca