Ford said Tuesday that he was “never sold” on the proof-of-vaccination policy, but that he introduced it on the advice of the province’s chief medical officer, Dr. Kieran Moore.
Moore and Ford have both pointed to improving virus indicators such as dropping hospitalizations and intensive care admissions as the rationale behind lifting more public health rules.
Those trends continued on Tuesday, with 1,550 people hospitalized with the virus and 384 people in intensive care – down from 2,254 hospitalizations and 446 intensive care patients one week ago.
Ontario is the latest province to accelerate its plans to end public health rules such as proof-of-vaccination policies in businesses. Others including Alberta and Saskatchewan are moving even faster to end their own policies – a domino effect that began not long after protests against vaccination rules and government shutdowns started disrupting cities and border points across the country.