Plans to Exit Step Three in the “Roadmap to Reopening”
October 15, 2021
The Premier just announced that Ontario is “finalizing the plan” to exit Step 3 of the previously announced 3-Step “Roadmap to Reopening”.
More details are needed but the government previously confirmed that once Step 3 was lifted, the following restrictions would also be removed:
- removing capacity limits in all sectors
- removing limits for social gatherings and organized public events
- removing requirements such as active screening of patrons and workers
Today’s press conference was characteristically lean on details, however, we are expecting at least some of these measures to be relaxed in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned.
At the same time, Ontario’s vaccine verification app, “Verify Ontario,” appears to be ready for download:
https://covid-19.ontario.ca/verify
According to its description, the app gives businesses and organizations the ability to scan the QR codes of province-issued vaccine certificates. After the code is scanned, a green checkmark will appear indicating a valid vaccine certificate, a red X for an invalid certificate or a yellow warning for a QR that cannot be read. Visitors require a vaccine receipt with a QR code – the vaccine receipt you have right now will not work.
Instead, you need to download an enhanced vaccine receipt that includes this QR code, however, if you go to the Ontario website to download this information it’s not yet ready (unless your birth date is between January – April):
https://covid-19.ontario.ca/get-proof/
Individuals do not need to download the app, only the enhanced vaccine receipt with QR code (when it becomes available for everyone, likely over the weekend).
On a positive note, vaccination rates continue to improve (87% of Ontarians have had at least 1 shot, and over 82% are fully vaccinated). And at the moment, rates of infection have been flatlining for weeks and are now declining. The US has also opened the border to land-crossing by fully vaccinated Canadians effective November 8th.
We will continue to keep you updated on any new developments. Feel free to contact us at SHRP with any questions about workplace Covid issues.
