TORONTO – Pressure continues on Premier Doug Ford to bring forward Step 3 of the reopening roadmap. According to the roadmap wanted by the provincial government, the plan on the progressive relaxation of anti-Covid restrictions should comply with two pre-terms: one refers to the mass vaccination campaign in Ontario and the other on timing. The transition from Step 2 to the next is conditioned by the percentage of vaccinated throughout the province.

According to the executive roadmap, we will see another easing of measures when between 70 and 80 percent of the adult population has received at least one dose of vaccine – Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca – and when at least 25 percent of Ontario residents have received two and will therefore be immunized against Covid-19. According to official data from covid19tracker.ca, in Ontario we have achieved this goal: so far in the province they have received at least one dose of vaccine 9,492,086 of adults, or 78.6%, while 5,951,788 adults – 49.3% – have completed their vaccination path with both doses. On the timing, however, when the government adopted the roadmap on reopenings, it decided to adopt a strategy of caution and prudence, introducing a minimum time of three weeks in the transition between one phase and another.

Following this principle, therefore, despite the fact that the objective closely linked to vaccinations has been achieved and exceeded, we will have to wait another fourteen days before moving on to Step 3. In recent days, pressure has increased from local politicians, trade associations and representatives of the productive sectors to achieve a general relaxation of restrictive measures ahead of schedule.

Today Patrick Brown joined the choir, which in the last period has certainly not hidden his critical attitude towards the overall management of the provincial government of the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The mayor of Bramtpon, during a press conference, stressed that in his opinion it is “time we show the public some more goodwill” taking into account the rapid improvement of epidemiological indicators and the increase in vaccination rates.

Brown confirmed that there is a general consensus among GTHA mayors to enter Step 3 a week earlier than expected. “If you look at the targets for stage three, we have exceeded all those vaccination thresholds and I really want to get our economy going,” Brown said.

“It pains me to think that we still have sectors that are not allowed to be open. It pains me to know that in the middle of a heat wave we’ve got indoor recreation facilities that our kids can’t use and we’ve got indoor pools that kids can’t use. I want to get kids sports back on, I want to see indoor dining opened up and I want to see our economy opened up again now that the sacrifices we have made have paid dividends in terms of health outcomes.”