With the growth in new COVID-19 cases showing no signs of slowing down, Premier Doug Ford has announced that the entire province is going into lockdown.
The Premier announced Monday afternoon that, as of 12:01 a.m. on Boxing Day, Ontario will be in lockdown for 28 days in the southern portion of the province, while the north will be in lockdown for 14 days. This will mean a ban on indoor social gatherings with anyone outside of a person's household and the closure of non-essential businesses. Fitness centres will close and bars and restaurants will only be allowed to offer take-out and delivery service.
"The number of daily cases continue to rise putting our hospitals and long-term care homes at risk," said Premier Ford. "We need to stop the spread of this deadly virus. That's why, on the advice of Dr. Williams and other health experts, we are taking the difficult but necessary decision to shutdown the province and ask people to stay home. Nothing is more important right now than the health and safety of all Ontarians."
Elementary students will not return to class on January 4. Instead, a week of remote learning is planned before class resumes on January 11. High school students in southern Ontario will learn from home for the entire 28 day lockdown period, returning to class on January 25.
In person shopping at most retail settings will be prohibited during the lockdown. However, businesses will be allowed to continue offering delivery and curb-side pickup service. Big box stores will be limited to 25 per cent capacity for in-store shopping, while supermarkets, grocery stores, and pharmacies will be limited to 50 per cent capacity. Shoppers will have to adhere to social distancing and face-covering protocols.
"This was not an easy decision before the holidays, but we have reached a tipping point," said Health Minister Christine Elliott. "We continue to see sharp increases in hospitalizations and occupancy in intensive care units is reaching concerning levels. Urgent action must be taken to prevent our health care system from becoming overwhelmed. By implementing a Provincewide Shutdown, we can work to stop the virus in its tracks, safeguard hospital capacity, and save lives."
But when asked why the province is waiting until Boxing Day to implement the lockdown, rather than starting it as soon as possible as suggested by the Co-Chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, Premier Ford said it's not that simple.
"Well, we've seen in the Grey area that businesses are locked down and we want to give the same opportunity to businesses that haven't experienced a lockdown before, and there's a tremendous amount of them across the province. Give them the opportunity to get ready and get ready to hunker down. We can't do it overnight and leave these people with inventory, especially the restaurants with food inventory. We need to give them an opportunity to get this done and this will carry on through January," the Premier said.
Earlier on Monday, the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table released new projections that suggested under the worst case scenario, Ontario could see up to 30,000 new cases per day by the end of January. The current trends would see about 5,000 cases a day. The worst case scenario would also see Intensive Care Unit occupancy higher than 1,500 beds by the middle of next month.