As of Wednesday, students will return to virtual learning until at least mid-January and Ontario will be reverting back to Step Two of its reopening plan, resulting in the closure of indoor dining, gyms, theatres and lower capacity limits in most other settings.
On Monday, Premier Ford announced that the province will head back into Step Two of its Roadmap to Reopening in response to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant that has caused record-breaking case counts in the past few weeks.
Ford also announced that students will pivot to remote learning on Wednesday until at least Jan. 17, subject to public health trends and operational considerations.
Schools, however, will be open for certain child care operations, including emergency child care, in-person instruction for students with special education needs, and for staff who are unable to provide instruction from home.
During this time, the government says free emergency child care will be provided for school- aged children of health-care and other eligible front-line workers.
Most students have been home for the past two weeks for the holiday break.
Step Two measures that come into effect on Wednesday include the closure of indoor dining, gyms, theatres, limiting indoor social gatherings to five people and outdoor gatherings to 10, and 50 per cent capacity limit for weddings, funerals, religious services and retail settings.
Capacity limits for personal care services, including hair and nail salons, will also be cut to 50 per cent.
The following settings will also be closed as of Wednesday: indoor concert venues, theatres, cinemas, museums, galleries and zoos. Outdoor settings will be allowed to stay open with restrictions and limited to 50 per cent capacity.
The closure of indoor sport and recreational fitness facilities and gyms will also come into effect on Wednesday, except for athletes training for the Olympics and Paralympics and select professional and elite amateur sport leagues. Outdoor facilities are allowed to operate but can not exceed 50 per cent occupancy.
In addition, as of Wednesday hospitals must pause all non-emergent and non-urgent surgeries and procedures in order to preserve critical care and human resource capacity.
The new measures come as sources told CTV News Toronto that the Ford government met on Sunday to discuss implementing stricter measures to preserve hospital capacity and keep schools open as the Omicron variant rapidly spreads.
Last Thursday, the government announced the return to school date would be pushed by two days to Wednesday to give schools extra time to provide N95 masks to staff and to deploy 3,000 HEPA filter units in addition to the 70,000 that have already been installed.
The government also announced that PCR tests would be limited to high-risk individuals as supply remains a concern amid high demand for tests across the country.
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