Ontario announces end to vaccine passports, other COVID-19 restrictions by March 1

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TORONTO — Ontario says it will lift its COVID-19 vaccine certificate system on March 1.

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On that date, the province will also lift capacity limits in all indoor settings.

Masking requirements will stay in place for now, but the province says a timeline to lift them will come later.

Premier Doug Ford says with public health indicators improving, the province can fast-track its plan to lift COVID-19 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.

“Given how well Ontario has done in the Omicron wave we are able to fast track our reopening plan,” Premier Doug Ford said in a statement Monday. “This is great news and a sign of just how far we’ve come together in our fight against the virus. While we aren’t out of the woods just yet we are moving in the right direction.

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The move to end the measures comes against a backdrop of protests, initially against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, that have spread across Canada and hit Ontario especially hard. Demonstrations have shut down parts of Canada’s capital city of Ottawa for more than two weeks, and protesters had blockaded a bridge that serves as the country’s largest trade artery with the U.S. for about a week through yesterday.

Ford said the plan to ease restrictions was in place “long before the protests were out there” and called the continuing demonstrations “unacceptable.”

“I understand it’s frustrating for everyone,” Ford said in response to reporters’ questions. “But when you start occupying borders, international trade corridors, it’s game over. There’s zero tolerance for that.”

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Starting Thursday:

Social gathering limits 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors.

Capacity limits gone from indoor settings requiring proof of vaccination including restaurants, gyms, drinks establishments without dancing, non-spectator areas of sports and fitness facilities, cinemas, meeting spaces, casinos, bingo halls.

Fifty per cent of the usual seating capacity at sports arena, concert venues and theatres.

Twenty-five per cent capacity at nightclubs, bathhouses sex clubs.

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Capacity at wedding, funeral, religious ceremonies enough to allow social distancing.

Starting Friday at 8 a.m.:

Youth aged 12 to 17 eligible for booster shot.

Starting March 1:

Lifting of all proof of vaccination requirements for all settings. Businesses can opt to keep mandates, masking requirements stay in place.

Vaccine mandates for staff in workplaces such as long-term care facilities and hospitals will remain in place to “secure areas for our most vulnerable,” Ford said.

Mask mandates will be reviewed in light of hospitalizations, intensive-care unit availability, test-positivity levels and test availability, Kieran Moore, the province’s chief medical officer, said in response to reporters’ questions. Decisions on any further relaxation of restrictions may be made in mid-March once the province has reviewed the data from the earlier rounds of easing, he said.

Reporting by Canadian Press, Bloomberg and Postmedia