Ontario will now go into a province-wide lockdown on December 26.
The announcement was made Monday afternoon by Premier Doug Ford.
The restrictions for northern Ontario will last 14 days and 28 for communities south of Sudbury and will be re-evaluated at those times.
Ford stresses the move is designed to ease current pressures on the health care sector, stating the province is on the verge of cancelling more elective surgeries and we already have thousands and thousands of backlog surgeries.
“Our hospitals are filling up more each day. We’ve seen a 70% increase in hospitalizations and 80% increase in ICU admissions in the past few weeks.”
He adds he’s extremely alarmed of a new strain of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom that is more contagious.
Ford says the preventative decision was also based on stopping people from moving across provincial boundaries and spreading the virus to low case regions like northwestern Ontario.
“This difficult action is without a doubt necessary to save lives and prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed in the coming weeks. Make no mistake. Thousands of lives are at stake right now. If we fail to take action now the consequences could be catastrophic.”
Ford says starting today “We’re asking all Ontarians to stay at home and only leave when absolutely necessary such as work, groceries, prescriptions or medical appointments.”
The lockdown will look similar to the shutdown back in March, with only essential businesses being allowed to remain open.
Measures include:
-Restricting indoor organized public events and social gatherings, except with members of the same household (the people you live with). Individuals who live alone may consider having exclusive close contact with one other household.
-Prohibiting in-person shopping in most retail settings. Curbside pickup and delivery can continue. Discount and big box retailers selling groceries will be limited to 25% capacity for in-store shopping. Supermarkets, grocery stores and similar stores that primarily sell food, as well as pharmacies, will continue to operate at 50% capacity for in-store shopping.
-Restricting indoor access to shopping malls. Patrons may only go to a designated indoor pickup area (by appointment only), essential retail stores that are permitted to open (e.g. pharmacy, grocery store), or, subject to physical distancing and face covering requirements, to the food court for takeout purposes. Shopping malls may also establish outdoor designated pickup areas.
-Prohibiting indoor and outdoor dining. Restaurants, bars and other food or drink establishments will be permitted to operate by take out, drive-through, and delivery only.
Ford says he realizes that small businesses will be impacted by the new measures and that’s why the government is out with new grants of $10,000 to $20,000.
The announcement comes on the same day Ontario released some troubling COVID-19 modelling news.
It includes:
-Cases continue to grow and overall case levels are twice the “red” level. Percent positivity is flattening. Our ability to control case growth is still precarious.
-Continuing case growth will increase outbreaks in long-term care homes and other congregate settings.
-Under all scenarios, ICU occupancy will be above 300 beds within 10 days. Worst case scenarios show occupancy above 1,500 beds by mid-January.
-Based on experience in France and Australia, “hard lock-downs” of 4-6 weeks can reduce case numbers in Ontario to less than 1,000 per-day and possibly much lower with increased testing and support.
-With lower case numbers we can maintain safe ICU care for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients who require it.
-As noted in previous briefings, public health restrictions will require more resources (e.g. testing, isolation/quarantine support) in communities and essential service workplaces where exposure is higher.
Ontario reported 2,123 new cases of the novel coronavirus Monday, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 158,053.
Seventeen new deaths were also reported, bringing the provincial death toll to 4,167.
