By Moira Warburton
TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto, Canada’s biggest city and its financial capital, will allow businesses to reopen starting Friday, as it joins other regions in the province of Ontario in ending a three-month pandemic lockdown, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Monday.
Restaurants in Toronto, along with Peel Health Region which encapsulates the city’s densely populated suburbs, will be able to open their patios, Ford said. Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, started gradually reopening its economy this month, but Toronto was left out of the initial list.
Canadian provinces imposed lockdowns in March to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed 8,430 people in Canada and infected 101,337, according to latest government data.
The only health region still in phase one of three reopening phases is Windsor-Essex, where an outbreak is hitting migrant workers on farms.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
