`Our province is in crisis': Premier
Ford orders everyone to stay home unless you have an essential trip
People in Ontario are being ordered to stay home, starting Thursday, except for essential trips.
Schools in Windsor and Essex County and four other regions with the highest number of COVID-19 cases — Toronto, Hamilton, Peel and York — will also remain closed until at least Feb. 10.
Premier Doug Ford announced the new restrictions Tuesday. He also declared a second state of emergency effective immediately. The announcement followed surging infection rates and projections that the virus could overwhelm the health-care system by February.
“There will be some very dark days ahead,” Ford warned at a news conference.
“We're at levels we've never seen before. Our province is in crisis.”
“The health-care system is on the brink of collapse,” he said.
The only exceptions to the stayat-home order will be essential trips to grocery stores, pharmacies, medical appointments, work — if it can't be done remotely — and for exercise.
The government also announced additional measures:
Non-essential retail stores, including hardware stores, alcohol retailers and those offering curbside pickup or delivery, will be restricted to operating between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. The restricted hours do not apply to stores that sell primarily food, as well as pharmacies, gas stations, convenience stores and restaurants offering takeout or delivery. Non-essential construction will be further restricted. Outdoor gatherings are restricted to five people. Wearing a mask or face-covering is now recommended outdoors when physical distancing is not possible.
Businesses are to ensure all employees who can work from home are working from home.
The premier acknowledged the stay-at-home order is “drastic” and the additional measures “difficult.”
“But they are absolutely necessary,” he said.
The measures are aimed at reducing people's mobility and the number of contacts they have outside their households to help break the cycle of transmission.
“Too many people have too many contacts,” said Health Minister Christine Elliott.
Police, bylaw officers and provincial workplace inspectors will have authority to issue tickets, temporarily close premises and disperse people who contravene the restrictions.
The premier announced the restrictions shortly after the province released alarming new data and projections that show the virus, on its current trajectory, will overwhelm Ontario's health-care system by next month.
The number of cases has doubled during the last two weeks. If the positivity rate hits five per cent, there will be more than 20,000 new cases a day by the middle of next month, according to Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, one of the experts behind the projections. If the rate rises to seven per cent, there will be 40,000 new cases a day.
More than 400 COVID-19 patients are now in intensive care units. A quarter of the province's hospitals have no ICU beds free and another quarter have only one or two beds free. COVID-19 patients are projected to need as many as 1,000 ICU beds by February.
Hospitals could face very difficult choices within weeks, Brown said. “These are choices that no doctor ever wants to make, and no family ever wants to hear,” he said.
“There will be choices about who will get the care they need and who will not.”
Modelling also shows that under current restrictions, daily deaths from the virus will double from 50 to 100 in Ontario by the end of February.
The projections show deaths from COVID-19 will surpass those in the first wave unless there is a significant reduction in contacts between residents.
The data also show that onethird of people in Ontario are not following public health measures and current restrictions have not reduced the number of contacts people have.
Adding to the alarm, eight new cases of the U.K. variant of the virus that spreads much more easily and quickly were reported Tuesday.
“I fully support the new restrictions announced by Premier Ford and will be working with city administration to ensure we are doing all we can to protect our staff and the public,” Mayor Drew Dilkens said in a written statement.
“Failure to adhere to public health recommendations are leading to illness and death — that's the simple truth. Families need to have the difficult conversations about missing holidays, birthday celebrations and other milestone events for just a few months longer.”
Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj applauded the restrictions but argued “they should have been announced a week ago. The data was bad a week ago.”
The restrictions will also be difficult to enforce, he said. The premier acknowledged that, saying that success will depend on the public's co-operation.
“It's going to make it very difficult for businesses that are barely hanging on,” said Windsor-essex
(The restrictions) should have been announced a week ago. The data was bad a week ago.
Regional Chamber of Commerce CEO Rakesh Naidu.
But, he added, “we clearly understand why they are doing it.”
The chamber will lobby the government to change its rent relief program to cover 100 per cent of a business's rent instead of 90 per cent.
Naidu also said it's unfair that big box stores can continue selling non-essential items while small businesses that sell the same items are closed. Big box stores should be allowed to sell only items that are essential, he said. Some provinces have already implemented that restriction on big box stores.