In order to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, Toronto is poised to extend a suite of bylaws introduced. Officials say plans for the city to eventually begin tiptoeing its way out of the pandemic shutdown are also underway. Mayor John Tory says the next reopening of the city will follow a trajectory similar to the spring and summer of 2020. At its next meeting, beginning on Feb. 2, the city council will vote on the extension. “Toronto Public Health still lists the status of virus spread and containment in the “red” zone, despite some improvements in recent weeks.
It is still not clear when Toronto will be considered safe to start reopening, although officials say the process will look much like it did in the late spring and early summer of 2020. “My guess is the reopening will happen much as it did in the spring,”My guess is the reopening will happen a lot like it did in the spring. “If you go back and look at that time, we didn’t go from lockdown to fully open in one day or one week,” he said.
Health officials say the roll-out of vaccines and vaccination rate statistics will influence Toronto’s reopening approach. Ontario, which defines the kind of constraints in each region and determines when regions or cities are moved from one area to another. Ten days later, the province responded by moving Toronto into its “lockdown” zone, confirming many of the measures put in place by the city. A precedent for going above and beyond provincial orders has already been set by the city.
Source CBC
