Most of Ontario COVID-19 restrictions are lifting in March. Here's what you need to know

Nearly all of Ontario’s major COVID-19 restrictions will lift this week, bringing the province the closest it’s been to pre-pandemic life.

Since Premier Doug Ford announced a state of emergency in March 2020, the province has been in and out of lockdown. The latest round of public health measures went into effect just after the Christmas holidays, shuttering restaurants and gyms yet again while severely restricting social gathering limits.

The province began reopening just over a month ago, allowing gyms and indoor dining to resume at 50 per cent capacity.

Each part of the province’s three-step plan was supposed to be separated by at least 21 days in order for the province to monitor public health trends. However, the province announced an expedited timeline in early February, a move that would see Ontario almost fully reopened fourteen days earlier.

Ontario moved to the second phase of the plan on Feb. 17, which saw social gathering limits increase to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors.