The province of Ontario has announced they will move into Step 3 of its summer reopening plan next Friday, July 16, 2021 - five days earlier than originally scheduled.
"Key public health and health care indicators continue to improve, and Ontario's vaccination rate surpassed the targets outlined in the province’s Roadmap to Reopen," said the province. "These milestones make it possible to move to Step Three of the Roadmap to Reopen at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 16, 2021, several days ahead of schedule."
Ontario’s new chief medical officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, outlined the upcoming changes with more specific guidelines for several businesses and facilities.
Though Moore previously said he wanted to wait at least three full weeks, he said today it’s safe to move forward because “Our immunization strategy is working really well. I didn’t see any reason to hold us back.”
Step 3 required 70-80% of eligible Ontarians to have at least one dose, and 25% of those required a second dose for two weeks. As of yesterday, July 8, over 77% of the population had one dose and over 50% had their second.
The improvement of other key public health and health care indicators, including hospitalizations, ICU occupancy and the weekly cases incidence rates, were crucial. The province said they "expect positive trends to continue over the coming days before entering Step Three."
Government of Ontario
Step Three of the Roadmap focuses "on the resumption of additional indoor services with more significant numbers of people and restrictions in place." Here are some of the new changes coming in Step 3 of Ontario’s reopening plan:
- Outdoor social gatherings will allow up to 100 people
- Indoor gatherings will allow up to 25 people
- Gyms, indoor sports and recreation can open at 50% capacity or 1,000 people (whichever is less)
- Indoor dining, retail stores, personal care and real estate open houses can allow as many people who can safely socially distance from each other
- Religious services, weddings and funerals are allowed indoors for as many people who can distance safely
In addition to the above, several indoor facilities can open at 50% capacity indoors and 75% outdoors, including but not limited to:
- Cinemas
- Museums and Science Centres
- Aquariums
- Casinos and Bingo Halls
- Historic Sites
Lastly, cultural and sports facilities like concert venues, theatres and sports facilities will be allowed to open at "a maximum of 50% capacity of the indoor space."
- Capacity for indoor spectators is 50% of the usual seating capacity or 1,000 people, whichever is less.
- Capacity for outdoor spectators is 75% of the usual seating capacity or 15,000 people, whichever is less.
The province said "face coverings in indoor public settings and physical distancing requirements will remain in place throughout Step Three." Face coverings will also be required in some outdoor public settings as well.
Moore did also say despite the progress, he is concerned about the Delta and Lambda variants of concern. Delta has been confirmed to be the new dominant strain of new, daily cases and six cases of the new Lambda variant have been confirmed in Ontario so far.
“While this is exciting news, we must still remain vigilant and continue to follow the public health measure we know work and keep us safe," said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. "Vaccines remain our ticket out of the pandemic, so if you haven’t booked your appointment yet, please do so today."
Please view the regulation for the complete list of public health and workplace safety measures. More information on today's announcement is available directly from the province of Ontario.
