The Ontario government intends to lift a provincial directive that ordered hospitals to pause non-urgent surgeries and procedures "in the coming days," Health Minister Christine Elliott said Wednesday. The minister also said Ontario has no plans just yet to get rid of vaccine passports and masking as other provinces like Saskatchewan and Alberta have announced in recent days.
Elliott's comments came as she announced the <a href="https://www.qpbriefing.com/2022/02/09/free-rapid-antigen-tests-at-pharmacies-and-grocery-stores-elliott/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">distribution of millions of rapid antigen tests</a> to Ontarians through grocery stores and pharmacies starting Wednesday. This also follows the first step of reopening for the province, which started last week with venues like restaurants, cinemas and gyms being allowed to welcome back patrons indoors at 50 per cent capacity.
"We understand the impact Directive 2 has had on Ontarians in need of care, which is why we intend to lift Directive 2 in the coming days and begin a gradual and cautious resumption of surgeries and procedures," Elliott said, noting that COVID-19 hospitalizations are declining and that the province is moving in the right direction. "The Ministry of Health and Ontario Health are finalizing the details on a phased approach to resuming this care for patients across the province as we continue to gradually ease public health measures."
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore issued the directive in early January, with a revised version on Feb. 1 saying that certain health services that had been placed on hold, like cancer screening or non-urgent surgeries in pediatric, private and independent health facilities, could "gradually and cautiously resume."
The directive has been used at various times throughout the pandemic, with the government saying it needed to take the step to build capacity for COVID-19 patients and to address staffing crises in hospitals during periods of widespread infections. While the province had a backlog of surgeries and other medical procedures prior to 2020, this has been exacerbated during the pandemic.
On Wednesday, Elliott acknowledged that many Ontarians have been waiting for long periods of time for their surgeries.
"I know this is very concerning to many people, especially if they're waiting for cancer or cardiac surgery, but many other people are waiting for orthopedic surgeries and and other surgeries as well, so this is something we want to get back to as quickly as possible," Elliott said, though she didn't share a more specific timeline.
The government previously came under fire for announcing its reopening plan for the province on Jan. 26, but not including details of when it would restart paused surgeries and procedures.
Asked about how soon paused surgeries and procedures could be restarted once the directive is lifted, a spokesperson for the University Health Network's Toronto General Hospital said that while they are seeing a decrease in active COVID-19 cases, there are still a "high number of patients in hospital as a result of COVID."
"We are assessing the situation daily and will increase capacity as soon as we have met all the necessary criteria, including appropriate staffing and in-patient bed capacity for post-surgical patients," the spokesperson wrote in an email.
Meanwhile, Ontario is aiming to further ease restrictions on Feb. 21, with capacity limits for all indoor settings expected to be lifted March 14. But the province has not indicated any plans to lift the vaccine passport system or masking requirements, with Moore saying <a href="https://www.qpbriefing.com/2022/02/03/ontario-on-its-way-out-of-omicron-dr-moore/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">last week</a> that masking will likely be "the last one to go" and that the province needs to "reassess the value" of the passport system.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced the end of the province's proof-of-vaccination system this week. Alberta is also lifting the masking requirement for children 12 and under and school kids of all ages starting Monday.
Saskatchewan plans to end its vaccine passport system on Feb. 14 and get rid of its masking requirement for indoor settings at the end of February.
Asked about Ontario's plans given these recent announcements from provincial counterparts, Elliott said, "We want to ease restrictions as soon as it's safe to do so, but we're doing it in a very cautious and prudent way."
"We've already set out our opening timeline ... we have no plans currently to drop the passport vaccination situation or masking; we believe that masking is going to be important for some time to come, and of course, we take our advice from Dr. Moore," she said. "We always said that we're going to take a very cautious, phased, prudent approach to opening up, and that's the path that we're going to follow."
Pressed on the issue, Elliott defended the government's actions, saying the province still needs to be careful given the continued presence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant and its subvariant BA.2 in Ontario.
"We are not telling the people of Ontario that this is going to remain in place forever, no, but we're not in the clear just yet, and so we need to continue to protect Ontarians, protect each other with the passports and with the masks at this point."

Ontario planning to allow resumption of non-urgent surgeries ‘in the coming days’

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