Ford says 10-person social circles will likely remain in place until new year

The government told Ontario residents almost two months ago that they could incorporate up to ten people in their social bubbles, including people they did not live with. Many were finally able to hug family members they hadn’t been able to make contact with for months.

"This pandemic is not over," Ford said on Tuesday during a news conference. "It’s going to continue going and in my opinion—I could be wrong, I’m no medical professional—but, in my opinion, this is going until January, until we get a vaccine or hopefully sooner when we get a vaccine."

Ontario’s current social bubbles are still capped at 10 people and residents are still expected to keep their distance from people outside of their circle.

When asked on Tuesday if the restrictions would be lifted in the near future, Ford said that there are no immediate plans to make that happen.

"We have to be on guard constantly," said Ford. "We can’t take our eye off the ball for a second when it comes to this because it will come back and bite us in the backside like we’ve never seen before."

Ford added that if restrictions are loosened, "reckless and careless" similar to what's taking place in the U.S. may occur.

"I don’t want what happened in the U.S. to happen here and it can happen real quick, real quick so let’s just continue on. We’ve all worked so hard. Everyone has done a great job so let’s just continue on as a strong province."

The daily case count in Ontario fell below 100 last week—the first time it has been that low since March.

There were 88 new cases of coronavirus reported on Monday followed by 91 on Tuesday. This comes after an uptick over the weekend as over 100 cases were reported on both Saturday and Sunday.

The majority of the province has entered Stage 3 of Ontario’s reopening plan with only Windsor-Essex remaining in Stage 2.