COVID-19 restrictions in the London area will ease next week.
It was announced Friday afternoon that the region including Elgin and Oxford counties will move to the orange-restrict level of the COVID-19 response framework on Monday. That means bars, restaurants, and gyms will be allowed to have 50 people inside. Movie theatres will be able to re-open, but with capacity limits of 50 people.
The move to orange takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
On Monday, Chief Medical Officer of Health with the Middlesex London Health Unit Dr. Chris Mackie said with the low number of new cases being reported, it could have been possible for London-Middlesex to move to the yellow-protect level. During the announcement Mackie explained the decision to opt for orange was somewhat precautionary.
"We have definitely seen when people get the signal that everything is fine then behaviours tend to go back to the level of indoor interactions that really can accelerate cases," Mackie said. He added that when speaking with Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer, they agreed the move to orange would be safer should variants of concern cause local cases to spike.
Mackie said it's too early to speculate as to when the region will be able to move to even lighter restrictions.
"A lot can change in COVID in two weeks."
https://twitter.com/MLHealthUnit/status/1365406254299033600
