Ontario announces vax certificates to end March 1
Published February 14, 2022 at 11:51 am
TORONTO — Ontario is ending its vaccine certificate system on March 1, when capacity limits in public settings will fully lift as well, though Premier Doug Ford said masking requirements will remain for now.
Ford insisted the steps are not a result of pressure from anti-vaccine mandate protesters.
“Today’s announcement is not because of what’s happening in Ottawa or Windsor, but despite it,” he said Monday.
“The extraordinary measures that we introduced during this pandemic were always intended as a last resort. I stood at this very podium and promised you that these tools would only be used for as long as they were absolutely necessary and not one day longer. The removal of these measures has always been our objective.”
Public health indicators have been improving, with the positivity rate of COVID-19 tests dropping from a peak of nearly 40 per cent to 13 per cent, and hospitalizations down under 1,400 from a high of more than 4,000, Ford said.
Due to those metrics, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore presented a plan to lift the COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine certificates, Ford said, a plan that has been in the works since before protesters began occupying downtown Ottawa more than two weeks ago.
Videos
Ford said he understands frustration with the restrictions, though he credited them for saving tens of thousands of lives, and lamented the divisions they have caused.
“All of it has polarized us in a way that we could have never imagined. I’ve experienced this in my own family. It’s been one of the hardest things my family and I have ever gone through,” said Ford, whose daughter is a vocal opponent of vaccine mandates.
“But for all of this, I can still take comfort in knowing that there remains so much that unites us.”
Ontario is now fast-tracking previously announced steps to lift restrictions, including moving the next step of its reopening plan up to Thursday instead of next Monday.
On that day, social gathering limits will increase to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors, while capacity limits will be removed in places such as restaurants, bars, gyms and movie theatres. Capacity at businesses such as grocery stores, pharmacies and retail stores will be set at the number of people who can maintain a distance of two metres.
Less than two weeks later, on March 1, capacity limits will be lifted in all remaining indoor public settings and proof-of-vaccination requirements will end for all settings.
A vaccine mandate for staff in long-term care homes will remain, Ford said.
The province also announced that youth aged 12 to 17 can book booster doses of a COVID-19 vaccine as of 8 a.m. on Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2022.
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
insauga's Editorial Standards and Policies advertising