November 3, 2020

Ontario Releases COVID-19 Response Framework to Help Keep the Province Safe and Open

In consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health and other health experts, the Ontario government has developed the Keeping Ontario Safe and Open Framework. It ensures that public health measures are targeted, incremental and responsive to help limit the spread of COVID-19, while keeping schools and businesses open, maintaining health system capacity and protecting vulnerable people, including those in long-term care.

    • It ensures that public health measures are targeted, incremental and responsive to help limit the spread of COVID-19, while keeping schools and businesses open, maintaining health system capacity, and protecting vulnerable people, including those in long-term care.
    • This framework will serve as an early warning system allowing us to scale up and scale back public health restrictions on a regional or community basis in response to surges and waves of COVID-19.
    • As the province continues to expand access to real-time data, enhancements are also being made to Ontario.ca/coronavirus, Ontario's one-stop-shop for information on COVID-19. Information about the spread of the virus, and public health and health system capacity will now be available on the website.
    • Each public health unit will be classified according to current framework indicators.
    • Proposed classifications based on data for the week of October 26 will be confirmed by the province on Friday, November 6, 2020, and become effective on Saturday, November 7, 2020, at 12:01 a.m.
    • Final decisions on moving public health unit regions into the framework will be made by the government based on updated data and in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, local medical officers of health, and other health experts, and will be reviewed weekly.
    • Going forward, the government will continually assess the impact of public health measures applied to public health unit regions for 28 days, or two COVID-19 incubation periods.

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