Ontario’s stay-at-home will remain in place until “at least” June 2, Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday. Ford said the province should be able to lift restrictions on outdoor recreation by that date, with more details on reopening plans to follow in the days and weeks after that.

“The situation is slowly trending in the right situation. Make no mistake, we’re not out of the woods yet,” Ford said, adding that his goal is for Ontario to have “the most normal July and August as possible.”

The news conference marked the first time Ford has taken questions from reporters in more than a week.

It came as Ontario reported another 2,759 cases of COVID-19 and 31 more deaths linked to the illness Thursday morning. While it was the most new infections in four days, it is still well below last Thursday’s count of 3,424. It is most useful to compare the same days of the week because of the cyclical nature of testing in Ontario.

Labs completed 47,638 tests and Public Health Ontario logged a provincewide positivity rate of 5.7 percent, the lowest in almost six weeks. Test positivity has, on average, been trending downward for several weeks.

Dr. David Williams, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said that the province’s numbers are now about where they were at the peak of the second wave.

“They’ve come down, but we have a ways to go yet,” he said.

Officials do not provide specific metrics

Provincial officials were asked what specific metrics they want to see by June 2 to begin easing public health measures. Neither Ford, Williams, or Health Minister Christine Elliott directly answered the question.

Williams would only say the province needs to be “well under” 1,000 cases per day for a “number of days.”

Officials also did not answer when asked if the province would return to its previous colour-coded framework.

In a statement, Ontario Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rocco Rossi said the chamber wants to see “evidence-based metrics for reopening,” with thresholds for case counts, health-care system capacity, and evidence of virus spread.

“We fully appreciate the need to be nimble and agile in responding to a crisis that is evolving rapidly; however, this flexibility should not preclude the government from providing Ontarians with a clear understanding about the key metrics and thresholds for a measured, safe, and carefully calibrated reopening plan,” Rossi said in a news release.

The new cases in today’s update include 774 in Toronto, 602 in Peel Region, 258 in York Region, 147 in Durham Region, 133 in Hamilton and 110 in Ottawa.

The seven-day average of daily cases fell to 2,731, its lowest point in about five weeks