The province is not renewing the current state of emergency when it expires this week.
However, Simcoe County and Muskoka will remain shut down by order of the province until Feb. 16.
The last day of the state of emergency is tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 9. Three regions have the provincial shutdown measures that have been in place since Dec. 26 lifted this week. There is a phased-in approach over the next couple of weeks for the remaining regions.
The provincial shutdown will be lifted in three areas — Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox Addington Health Unit, and Renfrew County and District Health Unit — starting Feb. 10. These areas will move into the green zone of the province's COVID-19 Regional Framework.
For most other health units, including Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit the shutdown will remain in place for an additional week, until Feb. 16. This means existing public health and workplace safety measures will stay in place, including the stay-at-home order.
The exception to this is Peel, Toronto and York regions, who will keep the shutdown measures until at least Feb. 22.
As the shutdown measures are lifted, regions will go back into colour-coded restriction measures based on the COVID-19 regional framework in place at the end of 2020. Where a region is placed depends on a number of indicators such as local case numbers, outbreaks, and healthcare capacity.
The province has also added what is being referred to as an “emergency brake,” by allowing local medical officers of health to move their region into grey/lockdown if they see spread of COVID-19 variants of concern.
The province has also made changes to its colour-coded response framework. In particular, the new framework allows in-person retail shopping even under grey/lockdown restrictions with 25 per cent capacity limits in place for retail and big-box stores.
Minister of Health Christine Elliott said the measurement is in response to the variants of concern, which are known to be more transmissible.
On Jan. 12, Ford declared the second state of emergency in Ontario since the start of the pandemic. The stay-at-home order went into effect Jan. 14.
The first state of emergency in the province was declared March 17 and remained in effect until July 24.
The number of daily cases in Ontario has been declining recently.
Today, Public Health Ontario reported 1,265 new lab-confirmed cases of the virus. When the state of emergency was declared a month ago, more than 3,000 cases were being reported daily.
Three variants of concern have also been identified in the province.
Today Public Health Ontario reported 219 confirmed cases of the UK strain (B.1.1.7) and one case of the South African variant (B.1.251). Sunday, Toronto Public Health reported a case of the Brazil variant, it has not yet been reported in the province's variant strain totals.
