North Bay is listed as one of Ontario's four high-risk regions and thus will continue to be kept in the shutdown and stay-at-home measures until at least Feb. 22.
North Bay-Parry Sound joins Peel, Toronto and York regions.
See: Ontario Returning 27 Public Health Regions to Strengthened COVID-19 Response Framework
Meantime, 27 other health unit regions will be transitioning out of the shutdown into a revised COVID-19 Response Framework.
The Timiskaming Health Unit district will be returning to a green zone. Public Health Sudbury and Districts goes to orange and Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit is in the red zone.
The levels for the regions are:
Grey-Lockdown:
- Niagara Region Public Health
Red-Control:
- Chatham-Kent Public Health;
- City of Hamilton Public Health Services;
- Durham Region Health Department;
- Halton Region Public Health;
- Middlesex-London Health Unit;
- Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services;
- Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit;
- Southwestern Public Health;
- Thunder Bay District Health Unit;
- Wellington-Dufferin Guelph Public Health; and
- Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.
Orange-Restrict:
- Brant County Health Unit;
- Eastern Ontario Health Unit;
- Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit;
- Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit;
- Huron Perth Public Health;
- Lambton Public Health;
- Ottawa Public Health;
- Porcupine Health Unit; and
- Public Health Sudbury and Districts.
Yellow-Protect:
- Algoma Public Health;
- Grey Bruce Health Unit;
- Northwestern Health Unit; and
- ·Peterborough Public Health.
Green-Prevent:
- Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit; and
- Timiskaming Health Unit.
Three regions — Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox Addington Health Unit, and Renfrew County and District Health Unit — moved into the green zone of the COVID-19 Regional Response Framework Feb. 10.
Ontario's second state of emergency ended Feb. 9.
Orders in place under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMCPA) have been extended to Feb. 23. A full list of emergency orders under the EMPCA are available on the e-Laws website and at Ontario.ca/alert.
The number of daily cases in Ontario has been declining recently, although Ontario's top doctors issued a warning about the potential impact of the variants of concern this week.
Three variants have been identified in the province — the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7) strain, the South African (B.1.251), and Brazilian.
A presentation yesterday said the UK variant (B.1.1.7) is spreading and that case numbers will likely grow again in late February, with ICU admissions increasing after.
It noted that aggressive vaccination and sticking with the stay-at-home order would help avoid a third wave and third lockdown.
A province-wide shutdown took effect Dec. 26. On Jan. 12, Ford declared the second state of emergency in Ontario since the start of the pandemic. The stay-at-home order went into effect Jan. 14.
The first state of emergency in the province was declared March 17 and remained in effect until July 24.
