The emergency pandemic orders currently being enforced in Ontario have been extended until July 29, 2020.
With many regions in the province entering Stage 3 this week, the government is keeping the orders in place to protect vulnerable populations. The orders will protect seniors by allowing the redeployment of frontline staff in long-term care facilities. It also allows public health units to redeploy or hire new staff to conduct contact tracing and support case management.
"Although the trends in public health indicators continue to improve, we must remain on our guard and only relax emergency orders if and when safe to do so," said Premier Doug Ford on Thursday. "By following our gradual plan to reopen the province, we are seeing people get back to work and resume many activities safely. We do not want to undo the tremendous progress we have made together, so I urge everyone to stay the course and follow public health advice."
The province has indicated they are getting closer to ending the state of emergency in the province. The newly introduced Reopening Ontario Act would allow some orders to remain in place while ending the state of emergency.
The state of emergency has been in place since March 17. The government continues to review the emergency orders to determine when and if they can be safely eased or lifted.