Capacity limits are lifting in more Ontario settings as the province continues to roll back pandemic restrictions in light of improving COVID-19 indicators.
Starting today, restaurants, gyms and cinemas that must screen patrons for vaccination against COVID-19 have no limits on capacity.
Other indoor spaces that are using the proof-of-vaccination system are also no longer subject to capacity limits, while sports arenas and theatres can open to half capacity.
Social gatherings and public events can include up to 50 people indoors, and settings deemed higher risk like nightclubs and sex clubs can open to 25 per cent capacity.
Outdoor social gatherings can have up to 100 people and organized events have no limit on the number of people if they are held outdoors.
Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical health officer, is to take questions on the pandemic later this afternoon.
Though Premier Doug Ford didn’t implement a provincewide mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for staff at hospitals, many put their own policies in place.
The Canadian Press asked more than a dozen of those hospitals if they would be lifting their mandates as the province removes its vaccine certificate system next month, and all said no.
Cambridge Memorial Hospital’s president and CEO, Patrick Gaskin says people can choose to visit restaurants and gyms, but patients in hospitals don’t get such a choice, and they need extra protection.
Visitors at many hospitals are also required to be double vaccinated and hospitals have also placed limits on the number of people allowed to visit during the pandemic.
Some of those hospitals say they may soon review their visitor policies, but for now, the requirements are staying in place.
Anthony Dale, president and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association, says health-care workers in hospitals already have to show immunity against diseases such as measles and tuberculosis, and there’s no reason to treat COVID-19 any differently.
The province will, however, require school boards to offer virtual learning as an option for one more school year.
Government officials say they are making investments to make schools safe for in-person learning, but given the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, they want to offer parents one more year of choice.
The province is announcing its funding amounts for the next school year today, including $26.1 billion to school boards amounting to $13,059 per student, an increase from the previous year.
Ontario is also putting $175 million to tutoring programs to address impacts of the pandemic on learning, $25 million to reading intervention programs, $15 million to summer programs, and an additional $10 million for mental health promotion.
As well, the province said standardized EQAO tests will resume for Grades 3 and 6, and those results will form a new baseline against which to measure targets.
Some school boards had asked the province’s permission to cancel the Grade 9 math assessment this year, but the government said that making the test digital gives students greater flexibility in writing it, so it is the expectation that boards will offer that test this year.
Meanwhile, the province is reporting 1,342 people in hospital with COVID-19 and 356 patients in ICU.
That’s down from 1,403 hospitalizations and 364 people in intensive care the previous day.
There are also 36 more COVID-19 deaths being reported today.
Ontario is reporting 2,327 new COVID-19 cases, though Public Health Ontario has said the true number is likely higher because of limits on access to PCR tests.
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