Ontario allowing non-urgent, non-emergent surgeries to gradually resume

Hospitals in Ontario are now allowed to gradually resume non-urgent and non-emergent surgeries and procedures.

Dr. Kieran Moore, the province's chief medical officer of health, announced Thursday he was lifting Directive 2 as the province continues to see a steady decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions.

The directive was issued last month, ordering hospitals dealing with rising virus cases due to the Omicron variant to pause non-urgent and non-emergent surgeries and procedures.

"With encouraging trends and community transmission and our hospitalization and ICU admission trending downwards, we can now see that Omicron peak is behind us," Moore said.

"It's now time that we start focusing on resuming certain procedures in our health system, as well as the other aspects of our society that improve our social and well-being."