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At long last, haircuts are happening again.
Ontario is moving the province into Step Two of its Roadmap to Reopen at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, two days earlier than originally scheduled.
"Because of the tireless work of our health care heroes and the record setting success of our vaccine rollout," said Premier Doug Ford, "we are able to move into Step Two ahead of schedule on June 30 with the support of our public health experts."
In order to enter Step Two of the Roadmap, Ontario needed to "have vaccinated 70% of adults with one dose and 20% with two doses for at least two weeks, ensuring a strong level of protection against COVID-19." As of yesterday, over 76% of the population in Ontario ages 12 and up have received one dose and over 28% have received their second dose.
After entering Step One, during the period of June 11 to 17, 2021, the provincial case rate decreased by 24.6%. Before entering Step Two, the province "also needed to see continued improvement in key public health and health care indicators, including hospitalizations, ICU occupancy and the weekly cases incidence rates."
Step Two of Ontario's Roadmap to Reopen focuses on resuming more outdoor activities and limited indoor services with small numbers and mandatory face coverings, plus some other restrictions.
This includes, but is not limited to:
- Outdoor social gatherings and organized public events with up to 25 people;
- Indoor social gatherings and organized public events with up to 5 people;
- Essential and other select retail permitted at 50% capacity;
- Non-essential retail permitted at 25% capacity;
- Personal care services where face coverings can be worn at all times, and at 25% capacity and other restrictions;
- Outdoor dining with up to six people per table, with exceptions for larger households and other restrictions;
- Indoor religious services, rites, or ceremonies, including wedding services and funeral services permitted at up to 25% capacity of the particular room;
- Outdoor fitness classes limited to the number of people who can maintain 3 metres of physical distance;
- Outdoor sports without contact or modified to avoid contact, with no specified limit on number of people or teams participating, with restrictions;
- Overnight camps for children operating in a manner consistent with the safety guidelines produced by the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health;
- Outdoor sport facilities with spectators permitted at 25% capacity;
- Outdoor concert venues, theatres and cinemas, with spectators permitted at 25% capacity;
- Outdoor horse racing and motor speedways, with spectators permitted at 25% capacity;
- Outdoor fairs, rural exhibitions, festivals, permitted at 25% capacity and with other restrictions.
Please view the regulation for the full list of public health and workplace safety measures that need to be followed.
A natural question: will Step Three also be moved up? While the province has already surpassed Step Three vaccination targets, "Ontario may remain in Step Two for a period of approximately 21 days to allow the most recent vaccinations to reach their full effectiveness and to evaluate any impacts of moving to Step Two on key public health and health care indicators."
"Due to the continued commitment of Ontarians adhering to public health measures and going out to get vaccinated, we have seen our key health indicators continue to improve across the province," said Dr. David Williams, outgoing Chief Medical Officer of Health.
But he also said "the fight against COVID-19 is not over and we must continue adhering to the public health advice and measures currently in place to maintain this great progress.”
The province says the decisions was made based on key public health and health care indicators continuing to improve, the province-wide vaccination rate surpassing the targets outlined in the province’s Roadmap to Reopen, and on the recommendation of the the Chief Medical Officer of Health.
More information about today's announcement is available online here directly with the province of Ontario.
