TORONTO, Ont. - With the province reaching what the Ontario government is calling the post-peak phase of the fight against COVID-19, Premier Doug Ford said he is considering taking a regional approach to reopening the economy.
“I am now comfortable with asking our officials to look at a regional approach for a staged reopening,” Ford said during his daily media briefing on Friday.
“This will be one option we consider as we move into stage two. This is one option we are putting on the table. We are only able to do this now because we are able to get our testing to where we need it so the health officials are looking right now at what a regional model could look like.”
Previously, Ford had been adamant that reopening the economy would be a province-wide approach, but as testing continues to increase throughout Ontario, with daily tests approaching more than 18,000, Ford said there is a much clearer understanding of where outbreaks are taking place.
“The reality on the ground is very different across any parts of the province,” he said. “We are now getting a much better picture of what each region is dealing with. With more testing that picture becomes more and more clear.”
The province entered stage one of its three-stage framework for reopening last week, allowing certain businesses to open their doors with strict workplace guidelines in place.
“Let me be very clear, I am not prepared to take unnecessary risk when it comes to our health and safety,” Ford said. “We will continue to take a measured and cautious approach.”
What the approach will look like in terms of a regional reopening is to be determined by the province’s chief medical officer of health and the COVID-19 command table.
“We are looking at our table of how we would do regional opening,” said Dr. David Williams, the province’s chief medical officer of health. “What we’ve seen in the data lately, we are getting a picture of what is happening live time. A lot of our cases are focusing around the GTA. Some of our health units are not seeing any cases for two or three weeks in a row and that is very encouraging.”
But Williams added there still needs to be considerations taken to protect vulnerable remote communities, such as First Nations communities in Northern Ontario.
“We have to look at that and see where the cases are occurring,” Williams said. “One of the aspects we have to be careful of in our regionalization is we want to make sure that if cases are introduced or came back again and are further out, we are very concerned about the north, especially remote First Nation communities that we are very attentive to.”
“It’s not just some numbers at some time, it’s the wider picture we have to consider.”
In terms of when the province will enter stage two of reopening, whether it’s regional or province-wide, will depend on testing and the number of cases.
“We developed a plan very early on for three stages of opening,” said Minister of Health Christine Elliott. “That is very important from a public health perspective. We are just now starting to see cases from the gradual reopening of our economy as part of stage one.”
“That will be thoroughly examined and we will decide when we should open up to stage two. The regionalization is a separate issue. The timing of the stages won’t be. That will be based on the number of new cases, the hospital capacity, the contact tracing. All of those things have to come together for the command table to feel that it is safe and make that recommendation.”
