TORONTO -- As of Friday, most of Ontario will have entered into Stage 2 of the province’s plan to reopen after months of closure.
York Region is one of the latest areas permitted to reopen, which is welcome news for salon owner Maya Surilov, who has had to close shop since March.
“It’s about time,” she said speaking to CTV News Toronto on Thursday. “They told us at the beginning it would only be two weeks but it ended up being three months.”
Surilov says Maya’s Place Hair Beauty is booked solid for two weeks, which sounds encouraging, but notes that her salon is not operating at full capacity in order to observe the strict health and safety measures put in place.
“We can’t take that many people. This is the problem too in the beginning. We have to stay apart from each other. In the beginning it’s going to be a little tough but thank God we can reopen,” she said.
Less than 600 metres south of Maya’s Place and on the other side of Steeles Avenue (the dividing line between Toronto and York Region), sits Negah Ansari’s Hair Centre Chic on Hair, which has to remain closed due to the number of COVID-19 cases reported in the city on a daily basis.
“It’s been stressful,” Ansari tells CTV News Toronto. “We actually closed last November for a total renovation and I spent a good chunk of money there. So I was very excited to having it up and running.”
Toronto, Windsor-Essex and Peel Region are all in the same camp, unable to reopen until case numbers come down, a situation Ontario Premier Doug Ford said will be revisited.
Ansari says she hopes the government will announce Toronto will enter Stage 2 on Monday, adding that any more delays could “kill” her business.
“Wishful thinking would be [opening] next Friday. The salon has been in my family for 25 years, so I’d hate to see it close.”
“I’m not an expert on regional openings, but I mean it would have been nice to see that we would all open on the same time. My phone is ringing off the hook,” Ansari added.
The premier was originally against a regional approach, but changed his stance on the issue last month.
“We are getting a much better picture of what each region is dealing with, with more testing that picture becomes more and more clear,” Ford said at the time.
Ontario reported 173 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, most of which were reported in Toronto (70 cases) and Peel Region (27 cases). Windsor-Essex confirmed eight new cases on Thursday, down from the 22 reported a day earlier, though that region also remains in Stage 1.
It should be noted that there were 14 new infections reported in York Region, though there are no plans to delay their entering of Stage 2 on Friday.
Of the province's 34 public health units (PHU), most reported fewer than five new cases each with 16 PHUs reporting no cases at all.
There’s nothing stopping residents of Toronto, Peel Region and Windsor-Essex from travelling into regions that have entered Stage 2, though Premier Ford has said in days past that he trusts the judgment of Ontarians.
In the meantime, Surilov says she feels sorry for the shuttered businesses to the south and hopes all of Ontario will be able to move into Stage 2 soon.
