Ontario begins phased reopening Wednesday, majority of regions to remain in lockdown Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for Simcoe-Muskoka, said he would have preferred to see the order extended.“I’d rather that we’d waited until it was less precarious,” he said Tuesday.“I’m concerned that we’re losing a very effective control measure.”The health unit has been hit by several outbreaks — one of them particularly deadly — driven by a variant of COVID-19 that first emerged in the U.K., known as B.1.1.7.There had been 69 deaths in the outbreak at the Roberta Place long-term care home in Barrie, Ont., as of Tuesday, with more than 350 infections linked to the outbreak.Gardner also flagged another “worrying” outbreak at the Waypoint.