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Hello and welcome to COVID Communiqué 39. We have heard the recent announcements from Ontario and Quebec about plans for a cautious reopening. There is still a high level of uncertainty about various factors, from variants of the virus to vagueness about vaccine delivery. We too must be cautious, so we will proceed as follows, across our diocese.

On Tuesday February 16, we will ease our current RED stage protocols with these modifications, if permitted by provincial and local health regulations:
The limit of no more than five people in church to record or livestream a service remains, but individuals who offer spoken words during the service (e.g. officiant, reader, preacher, intercessor) may remove their mask while speaking on camera—provided that there is appropriate distancing from others. Please note that singers must keep their masks on when singing.
While we do not plan to move out of RED stage during February, we hope to be able to announce our schedule for reopening for in-person worship on February 22. It is our heartfelt hope we can all move to AMBER by Holy Week.
This approach is similar to the one we took last June, where we chose to delay in-person worship until September, allowing us some continuity and stability before taking on the additional work of holding in-person worship under very strict protocols.

If you have any questions about this or other issues, please contact the COVID-19 help desk: C19helpdesk@ottawa.anglican.ca.