OTTAWA -- Although the City of Ottawa is just days away from reopening under a colour coded framework, some medical experts are raising concerns.

Level orange restrictions will begin after Family Day, but some doctors are trying to hold up a red stop sign to the entire idea.

“From a public health perspective, I think it is too early,” said epidemiologist Dr. Raywat Deonandan.

“I don’t understand why we would start to ease up now,” added Dr. Ronald St. John, the former federal manager to the SARS response in Canada.

Starting Tuesday, Ottawa will return to the “Orange-Restrict” zone, allowing restaurants, non-essential businesses, and gyms to reopen with restrictions.

But it comes as the race is on to vaccinate as many Canadians as fast as possible, with the variants posing the threat of a possible third wave.

“A third wave, even with the variant, could be controllable if we continue with the rigorous implementation of the public health measures,” said Dr. St. John.

“We should take a couple more weeks to get the right resources so that we can open up in a really safe position. And those resources include better testing capacity and better contact tracing,” added Dr. Deonandan.

Ottawa Public Health says to date there have been six cases of variants of COVID-19 in the city. Five are the B.1.1.7 variant, first detected in the U.K., and one is the B.1.351 variant, first detected in South Africa.

And while the mayor pushed for the capital to be allowed to reopen, he too is urging caution.

“Let’s not get wild and lets not ruin that opportunity because the last thing we want is to go back into lockdown, that would be devastating,” said Mayor Jim Watson, in an interview with CTV News Ottawa on Friday.

But while some experts are concerned, there are those who say the stats show the capital is ready to start reopening.

“I think we’re in a position where we get to reopen the economy and see where it goes, and what I love about the approach is we’re being judicious right, like we’re owing things slowly,” said Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, critical care and palliative care doctor.

According to Ottawa public health cases per 100,000 residents in Ottawa have dropped to 27.6 on Saturday and the positivity rate is at 1.6 per cent for the week ending Feb. 11.