February 9, 2021
The Premier announced yesterday that the province has updated its COVID-19 Response Framework: Keeping Ontario Safe and Open to revise some retail regulations in areas under Grey Zone ‘lockdown’ restrictions, and will also begin a staggered reopening of the province as regions move from the Stay-at-Home order to Grey Zone designation.
Easing of retail restrictions
The shutdown and Stay-At-Home order and all existing public health and workplace safety measures will be maintained in the majority of the public health regions in Ontario, with these amendments to restrictions in the Grey Zone lockdown regions:
- In person shopping permitted for retail sales, with capacity limits;
- In addition to the previous restriction of 50 per cent capacity limit for supermarkets and other stores that primarily sell groceries, convenience stores, and pharmacies:
- 25 per cent capacity limit for all other stores that engage in retail sales to the public, including, big box stores;
- Stores will be required to publicly post store capacity limit
- Individuals will be required to wear a face covering and maintain physical distance when indoors in a business, with limited exceptions
There are also revised regulations for Red Zone and Green Zone regions.
The full list of revisions regarding retail operations can be found on this page of the Ontario government website:
In-Person Shopping at Retail Stores Permitted with Public Health and Safety Requirements in Place
Reopening
The following three regions will be moving back to the Green-Prevent level on Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at 12:01 a.m. and will no longer be subject to the Stay-at-Home order:
- Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
- Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health
- Renfrew County and District Health Unit
It is proposed that the Stay-at-Home order will continue to apply to 28 public health regions until Tuesday, February 16, 2021.
For Toronto, Peel and York regions, it is proposed that the Stay-at-Home order will continue to apply until Monday, February 22, 2021. Final decisions will be subject to review of the trends in public health indicators at that time.
The full text of the News Release can be found at this page on the government of Ontario website.