The three local regions are still waiting to see what colour code they will fit into once restrictions start to be lifted across the province.
For now, stay at home orders will remain in place across Huron, Perth, Bruce, Grey and Wellington along with most of the province until February 16th.
The province will still use the five colour system under its COVID-19 Response Framework: Green - Prevent Yellow - Protect Orange - Restrict Red - Control Grey - Lockdown
There are some tweaks being made to allow business to open in the Grey - Lockdown designation which would include limited capacity when it comes to customers in stores.
Huron Perth Public Health Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Miriam Klassen, says a number of factors will be considered when deciding to go back to the province's colour coded restriction system.
She says officials have to consider things like the incident rate, the percent positivity rate and whether outbreaks are stable or escalating.
"If I were to predict where we would be today, I would put us in orange," said Dr. Klassen. "But you know, one or two of our indicators might be green, one or two might be yellow and one or two might be orange and there is some judgment as to how the overall colour is landed on."
Surrounding regions could also have an affect on where the local area lands in the colour scale.
"They look at the capacity of local hospitals and public health to keep up with what they need to do during the COVID pandemic and they look at surrounding regions as well. So there are a lot of factors and they're not all the same colour," added Dr. Klassen.
In Grey and Bruce, the Medical Officer of Health says the province's slow and steady approach to reopening is what is needed.
Dr. Ian Arra says while there is evidence that the statistics in the local area favour a re-opening, other regions can have an affect if everything opens too quickly.
"Grey-Bruce numbers in epidemiology has been quite manageable and has always been," said Dr. Arra. "However, if the areas around us were in lockdown and we are open, we would be turned into a magnet, then people would come here and use our services."
Dr. Arra adds at this point, the current numbers qualify Grey and Bruce for the green level under the province's colour code.
The only regions in the province that are shifting to the colour coded system this week are all in the eastern part of Ontario. Those include the regions covered by Hastings Prince Edward Public Health; Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health; and the Renfrew County and District Health Unit.
They are all being classified under the Green - Prevent category.
The majority of the province will stay under lockdown until Tuesday, February 16th.
Toronto, York and Peel will be under lockdown until February 22nd.
