Ontario plans to ease COVID-19 restrictions by January 31

The countdown is on.

Ontario plans to ease COVID-19 restrictions on indoor restaurant eateries, gyms, movie theaters and more on Jan. 31, allowing them to open up to 50 percent customer capacity with masking protocols and proof of vaccination, sources told the Star said.

The date, a week from Monday, will be almost four weeks since Premier Doug Ford ordered the venues closed on January 5 to suppress the Omicron variant, which sent new COVID-19 infection levels off the cards and hospitals with record numbers of patients.

But there are signs that the Omicron wave is peaking after it burned rapidly through the province, with growth in infections and hospitalizations slowing.

“We’re starting to see a glimmer of hope,” Health Minister Christine Elliott told a news conference on Wednesday. “We expect these trends to continue, giving us more confidence as we plan for what’s next.”

Ford is expected to announce details at a news conference on Thursday after hinting for two days that “positive changes” were coming, but did not provide any dates or other information.

That teaser, and a promise from Elliott to provide “more clarity later this week,” frustrated a business community that felt it was being banded together after struggling through nearly two years in the pandemic.

“The dance of the seven veils may be entertaining, but it’s a hell of a way to announce policy,” said Ontario Chamber of Commerce President Rocco Rossi.

“It’s more than frustrating to the point that it’s very insulting to people hanging on to their fingernails.”

The 12 days to January 31 will give the province time to track trends in key pandemic indicators, do more vaccinations and see how the reopening of schools affects infection levels and the health care system, sources said.

Health officials said other positive signs indicating the ability to reopen include a drop in test positivity scores to the range of 20 to 25 percent, down from 31 percent weeks ago, and fewer health care workers sick with the virus or isolate, which alleviates an ongoing staffing crisis in hospitals.

When the restrictions were introduced, Ford said the provisional date for their removal was January 26, and businesses surrounded that date on their calendars.

The chief medical officer, dr. Kieran Moore told reporters on Wednesday that the reopening would be “set up and phased out”, meaning it would take time for businesses to return to full capacity. Typically, phases move in 14-day increments so that their impact can be measured.

“I’m starting to have more hope and cautious optimism,” Moore said of the trends, noting that key benchmarks for business reopening include hospital capacity – which is expected to remain high until February – and outbreak levels in nursing homes, which remain so. high.

“We still have hospitals that are under very challenging conditions,” says Matthew Anderson, CEO of the Ontario Health Agency, which oversees all components of the healthcare system.

More than 100 patients were transferred last week from overcrowded hospitals to others with beds available last week as the hospital system hit daily pandemic occupancy records for COVID-19. There were 4,183 patients in the hospital for the virus in Wednesday’s report, a rare drop from 51 from the previous day.

The occupancy of intensive care units for COVID-19 remained well within capacity on 580 patients, well below the level of nearly 900 when ICUs were on the verge of being overwhelmed in last spring’s third wave.

With Toronto schools returning to classroom two days late due to Monday’s snowstorm, Moore acknowledged the government would need to be ‘a little more careful’ with reopening.

“We need to take it slow and steady so that we do not endanger this first step with schools,” said Dr. Peter Jüni, scientific director of the science table of experts advising Ford and Moore, said.