Waterloo Region will be seeing red once again when the province lifts the COVID-19 lockdown order on Tuesday.
The Ontario government announced Friday that 27 public health regions will shift out of the shutdown and back into a revised version of the colour-coded system it had used before the stay-at-home order was imposed.
Read more:
Probable COVID-19 variant of concern linked to Kitchener school
“While we are cautiously and gradually transitioning some regions out of shutdown, with the risk of new variants this is not a reopening or a return to normal,” Health Minister Christine Elliott stated.
The red (or restrict) level features the most severe measures which can be placed on an area shy of a lockdown.
For supermarkets, that means a limit of 75 per cent of capacity, with a 50 per cent capacity limit for all other retail. Stores will now be required to post those capacity limits in addition to having signs outside noting mandatory masks.
There will be limits on public events and social gatherings to five people indoors and 25 people outdoors, excluding weddings and funerals which will be limited to 30 per cent of capacity indoors or 100 people outdoors.
Read more:
Waterloo Public Health announces plans to provide 10,000 vaccinations per day
At restaurants, casinos, bingo halls, event spaces, and fitness facilities there are limits of 10 people in indoor areas.
Sports teams being allowed to practice again although they cannot play games.
Movie theatres, performing arts venues, oxygen bars, steam rooms, saunas, bathhouses and other adult venues will all remain closed while the region is under the red status.
Waterloo Region Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang anticipated the area would be seeing red before the announcement.
She said metrics such as 58 new cases per week per 100,000 people and a per cent positivity rate of 2.5 per cent put Waterloo in the red zone.
Read more:
Waterloo Region surpasses 10,000 COVID-19 case mark
The red level also fits with the high number of outbreaks in long-term care homes and more than 30 people still being in area hospitals as a result of COVID-19.
The region and the municipalities it encompasses announced Friday that some city services and amenities would begin to open in the coming days including arenas, swimming pools, libraries and community centres.
Waterloo Region was not alone in seeing red as nearby Guelph, Hamilton and London were also placed in the red zone.
Meanwhile, neighbours such as Brant County, Huron-Perth and Norfolk-Haldimand will move to the orange zone while Toronto, Peel, York and North Bay have all been left in lockdown.