What you need to know about the stricter COVID-19 measures taking effect today

Stricter COVID-19 measures go into effect today in an effort to curtail the Omicron variant.

Students across the province will be logging on for remote learning Wednesday morning. The province says students will remain online until at least Jan. 17, while most other measures, including business closures, will last for at least 21 days.

Restaurants will no longer be allowed to offer indoor dining and retail settings, including shopping malls, will be topped at 50 per cent capacity.

Indoor sport and recreational fitness facilities including gyms will close their doors as well as indoor concert venues, theatres, and cinemas.

Hospitals have been ordered to pause all non-emergent and non-urgent surgeries and procedures in order to free up staff to cover absences and manage the rising number of hospitalizations.

On Monday, Premier Doug Ford announced the province would be moving back to Step 2 of the government’s Roadmap to Reopening plan.

Ford said Ontario will be facing a “tsunami” of new cases of the Omicron in the coming weeks, with daily case counts reaching hundreds of thousands.

Here’s a full list of the changes going into effect today:

• Reducing social gathering limits to five people indoors and 10 people outdoors.
• Limiting capacity at organized public events to five people indoors.
• Requiring businesses and organizations to ensure employees work remotely unless the nature of their work requires them to be on-site.
• Limiting capacity at indoor weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites and ceremonies to 50 per cent capacity of the particular room. Outdoor services are limited to the number of people that can maintain 2 metres of physical distance. Social gatherings associated with these services must adhere to the social gathering limits.
• Retail settings, including shopping malls, permitted at 50 per cent capacity. For shopping malls physical distancing will be required in line-ups, loitering will not be permitted and food courts will be required to close.
• Personal care services permitted at 50 per cent capacity and other restrictions. Saunas, steam rooms, and oxygen bars closed.
• Closing indoor meeting and event spaces with limited exceptions but permitting outdoor spaces to remain open with restrictions.
• Public libraries limited to 50 per cent capacity.
• Closing indoor dining at restaurants, bars and other food or drink establishments.
• Outdoor dining with restrictions, takeout, drive through and delivery is permitted.
• Restricting the sale of alcohol after 10 p.m. and the consumption of alcohol on-premise in businesses or settings after 11 p.m. with delivery and takeout, grocery/convenience stores and other liquor stores exempted.
• Closing indoor concert venues, theatres, cinemas, rehearsals and recorded performances permitted with restrictions.
• Closing museums, galleries, zoos, science centres, landmarks, historic sites, botanical gardens and similar attractions, amusement parks and waterparks, tour and guide services and fairs, rural exhibitions, and festivals. Outdoor establishments permitted to open with restrictions and with spectator occupancy, where applicable, limited to 50 per cent capacity.
• Closing indoor horse racing tracks, car racing tracks and other similar venues. Outdoor establishments permitted to open with restrictions and with spectator occupancy limited to 50 per cent capacity. Boat tours permitted at 50 per cent capacity.
• Closing indoor sport and recreational fitness facilities including gyms, except for athletes training for the Olympics and Paralympics and select professional and elite amateur sport leagues. Outdoor facilities are permitted to operate but with the number of spectators not to exceed 50 per cent occupancy and other requirements.
• All publicly funded and private schools will move to remote learning starting January 5 until at least January 17, subject to public health trends and operational considerations.
• School buildings would be permitted to open for child care operations, including emergency child care, to provide in-person instruction for students with special education needs who cannot be accommodated remotely and for staff who are unable to deliver quality instruction from home.

The province says free emergency child care is planned for school-aged children of health care and other eligible frontline workers.