Lockdown to end locally on Tuesday, Feb. 16

The Southwestern Public Health area and most other regions will come out of the current provincial COVID-19 “lockdown” on Tuesday, Feb. 16, Premier Doug Ford announced on Monday, Feb. 8.

A few regions in Eastern Ontario will open sooner, and Toronto, York and Peel will have to wait until Monday, Feb. 22.

“Today we’re seeing some sunlight break through the clouds,” he said at a news conference. “Daily cases numbers are down. Transmission rates are down. Less people are being hospitalized.”

However, he warned, that the danger of new variants of COVID-19 continued.

He announced that Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams could, in conjunction with a local medical officer of health, institute a lockdown in a region on their own authority at any time. Previously, such orders had to be improved by the Ontario Cabinet.

This was to guard against COVID-19 variants that were much more contagious than the original, Premier Ford said.