Ontario long-term care homes won’t accept general visitors or allow residents to leave for social reasons starting later this week.

Long-Term Care Minister Rod Phillips says the policy change is being made to protect residents from the highly contagious Omicron variant.

He says COVID-19 is spreading in the community, and allowing general visitors would risk exposing vulnerable residents to the virus.

Two designated caregivers will still be allowed to visit each resident after the changes take effect Thursday at 12:01 a.m.

Phillips says 41 long-term care homes are currently experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks, up from 37 on Monday.

He says 84% of eligible residents and 43% of eligible workers had received COVID-19 vaccine booster doses as of last week.