TORONTO, Ont. - The provincial government announced it will extend the province-wide stay-at-home order until at least June 2.
“Make no mistake, we are not out of the woods yet,” said Premier Doug Ford during a media briefing on Thursday.
“Our hospitals are still under immense pressure. We must stay vigilant and we must keep doing what is working. We need to maintain the stay-at-home order and all public health measures until at least June 2. These are precious weeks we won’t put to waste.”
The province-wide stay-at-home order was first implemented on April 7 and was extended to May 20 on April 16.
The restrictions were in an effort to curb a growing third wave of COVID-19 in parts of the province fueled by variants of concern.
Daily new cases, hospitalizations, and intensive care unit admissions reached record highs last month, though numbers are starting to trend downward, with Ontario reporting fewer than 3,000 new daily cases in recent days.
In the Thunder Bay District, COVID-19 rates continue to decline and there are 36 cases considered active as of Thursday.
Ford said after June 2 the province can start to look at reopening outdoor amenities and a return to more normal activities in the summer. But in order for restrictions to be lifted, the province will need to see a sharp decline in daily COVID-19 cases and more people vaccinated.
The province is planning to vaccinate 65 per cent of the population over the age of 18 by the end of May. Vaccinations will also open up to youth between the ages of 12 and 17 starting the week of May 31.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams said vaccinations will play a significant role in ending the third wave and jumping directly into a fourth wave. But COVID-19 variants of concern are also complicating the situation.
"Unlike in the past, we are in a different reality, we are in a vaccinated reality," he said. "That changes things tremendously. We are hoping when we get to June 2, we would like to see our numbers down a lot more. We are at 2,750, that is the peak of the second wave. We still have a ways to get back down."
Williams said the province will need to see a daily case count well below 1,000 because variants of concern at putting more pressure on the health care system.
"In the first and second wave when we were dealing with the non-variants, the number 1,000 was where we had our predictable hospitalization rates around six per cent and ICU rates accordingly," Williams said. "With the variants of concern, the hospitalization rates are higher, the ICU rate is double, so we need to take that into consideration."
Schools will also remain closed to in-person learning, with Ford saying health experts want schools to open again, while teacher’s unions say schools should remain closed.
“We need consensus. We simply don’t have that right now,” Ford said. “So for the time being we will need to continue with virtual learning.”
Williams said the decision to close schools to in-person learning was due in large part to being unable to conduct proper case contact management because the number of cases in the province was so high.
"I’m getting a lot more messaging from medical officers across the province that say we are now back into a level where we can start to deal with that so we are in live discussion with them to say, when we are ready to do that, can you do that," Williams said.
Williams added that as more teachers and education staff get vaccinated schools will be in a better position to reopen safely.
"All those things are moving along in a good direction, but we need to have more discussions with our public health units and with the Ministry of Education to determine the best time, the right time," he said. "Our schools were safe and we want them to open and stay open because it feels very important to have our children back in schools and maintain the safety record we had to now."
Andrea Horwath, leader of the opposition at Queen's Park, said the extension of the stay-at-home order is the result of Ford ignoring the advice of health experts.
"People are frustrated. They are exhausted. They are struggling with isolation. And they will be devastated to hear this Stay at Home order has to be extended, yet again, because of Doug Ford’s choices,” Horwath said in a statement.
“People and families have to stay locked down because Ford refuses to do what the experts have been telling him to."
