Toronto is finally getting the green light to carefully step outside and into the sunlight, albeit with extreme caution and the understanding that physical distancing measures are still very much in place.

Mayor John Tory said in an announcment today that, after acknowledging that the advice from public health officials to stay at home was the responsible direction at the time, "we know that people can't stay home forever."

"They will need to go outside and it is good for their health, provided they can continue, to a reasonable extent, to keep their distance from others," he said.

"In that regard, this week, we have started to shift from encouraging people to stay home as much as possible to encouraging people to keep their distance as much as possible."

Tory went on to say that the city is continuting to look at ways to improve physical distancing efforts, like the new ActiveTO initiative announced today that will see 50 kilometres of "quiet streets" opened up for pedestrians and cyclists.

This is in addition to already widening some sidewalk hotspots around the city as part of the CurbTO plan that was criticized for not doing enough to enable physical distancing and endangering road users.

The news also comes after the provincal government provided further details surrounding the reopening of the economy, which included allowing all retail businesses to offer cubside pickup starting next week.

"We are going about everything we are doing in a responsible, commonsense way," Tory said. "But there's a long road ahead of us to get back to anything near our normal lives."