Three regions in Ontario move into ‘green’ category today, opening restaurants and ‘non-essential’ businesses

Hastings Prince Edward- Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington, and Renfrey County will move from lockdown to the green category.

Other regions are expected to be lifted out of lockdown, including all but three Toronto-area regions. These regions will be Toronto, Peel Region, and York Region, whose lockdowns will not be lifted until February 22.

"I know that many areas are wanting to know where they are going to be. Whether they are going to go back to green or where they are in the framework that we've already set up. But we need to watch it very carefully and we need to get the numbers down in our hospitals.

"In some parts of the province, the numbers are still very, very high," said Ontario Minister of Health Christine Elliott on Monday.

"And with the variants of concern, we also want to see, for example in North Bay and Timiskaming, what's happening in those units, how quickly this variant is going to spread, because the health and safety of all Ontarians is our priority and the variants of concern can increase the rates exponentially. So that's why we want to wait a week."