Ford Says 'Positive News' Is Coming This Week For The Loosening Of COVID-19 Restrictions

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says "positive news" about COVID-19 restrictions will come by the end of this week.

"We'll have some positive news. I believe we're going to make some announcements later this week about going back to other levels of restrictions," Ford told News Talk 580 CFRA's The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll on January 18.

Ontario retreated back into a modified Step Two of its reopening plan on January 5, tightening COVID-19 restrictions across the province due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant and an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Under the new restrictions, indoor dining, gyms and other facilities were forced to close, schools temporarily returned to remote learning, capacity limits for retail stores and more shrank to 50%, and gathering limits were reduced to five people indoors and 10 people outdoors.

The modified Step Two restrictions are in place until January 26, when Ford will have to either lift, alter or renew them.

The premier said that even "one death is too many."

"I just can't stand these restrictions, but in saying that, we have two choices here. We can either go the Florida route, they have 65,000 deaths, which is totally unacceptable, or we're a little more cautious," he said.

Ford said he takes the advice of the chief medical officer, follows guidelines and bounces decisions off of "50 different people" before making a call.

"We've got to keep moving forward, we have to learn to live with this," he said.