Canada begins staggered lifting of pandemic lockdown

OTTAWA: Canada began a staggered loosening of pandemic restrictions as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged vigilance to avoid a COVID-19 resurgence.

The Atlantic coast province of New Brunswick, after seeing no new cases in just over a week, was first to relax social distancing rules, starting with the opening of parks and beaches.

Saskatchewan is set to allow businesses to reopen next week. Ontario and Quebec, which recorded the most coronavirus cases, largely at nursing homes, unveiled tentative schedules for reopening their economies.

Trudeau told a daily briefing that different provinces and territories will be able to move at a different pace. He stressed the need for a gradual and coordinated approach “to make sure we do this very carefully, based on absolutely the best scientific advice.” He added: “If we get this wrong, everything we have done, everything we have sacrificed over the past many weeks, could have been in vain,” he warned.

Federal guidelines for reopening of businesses include ramping up testing for the coronavirus and ensuring there is sufficient healthcare capacity to handle a possible surge in cases. The provinces are responsible for setting their own conditions for lifting restrictions. Trudeau said he has tremendous confidence in each province’s plan.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault told a news conference that “life must go on”. He announced that primary schools and daycares outside of hard-hit Montreal would be the first to reopen in the province on May 11 if the situation does not worsen.

Ontario started to see a decline in new cases over the past three days. Its rate of infections must continue to fall over the next two to four weeks before some businesses will be allowed to reopen in the first phase of rules easing.

People will also be allowed to gather in small groups in parks or for funerals. Service industries, as well as additional office and retail workplaces would follow as conditions improve.

Trudeau said Canadians need to stay vigilant every step of the way until there is an effective treatment or vaccine. The country should brace for a resurgence of cases in the fall and not expect a return to normal anytime soon, he said.

The coming months, the prime minister said, will see a “careful reopening in certain sectors of the economy and certain things being allowed as people try to get back to something a little more like normal.”

“Normal is something that is a long way off for all of us,” he added. “And if we want life to get back to the way it was exactly before, it won’t.” As of Monday, there were 48,229 coronavirus cases in Canada, including 2,781 deaths.