Ford confirms further COVID-19 restrictions coming as Ontario's cases surge
As Ontario’s COVID-19 cases continue to surge, the provincial government is gearing up to implement further restrictions on top of the current lockdown.
On Monday, Premier Doug Ford responded to a reporter at Queen’s Park saying “we worked all weekend until late hours last night” and that further recommendations are going to cabinet today to be considered, with an announcement coming on Tuesday.
Last week, Ford announced that COVID-19 modelling would be released on Tuesday, which would be “a wake-up call” for residents.
A CBC report confirmed that a curfew designed to prevent people from gathering outside their own household is being considered. There could also be the further shutdown of non-essential businesses and workplaces; however, no decision has yet been reached.
- See also:
The report also said the new modelling data will forecast the province reporting around 6,000 new COVID-19 cases daily before the end of January.
It will also reveal that a large part of the population is not following basic public health guidelines and that many Ontarians did not stay in their household before the Christmas holidays — the province-wide lockdown began on Boxing Day.
However, the CBC report noted that the new modelling does not show “dramatically different trends” from what the COVID-19 science table previously warned would happen in January.
It was also revealed there could be 800 COVID-19 patients in ICU by early February if the daily growth in cases is at 3%, and nearly 1,000 in intensive care if cases grow by 5% daily.
COVID-19 cases have been above 3,000 for over a week with Monday’s 3,338, Sunday’s 3,945, Saturday’s 3,443, Friday’s record-breaking 4,249, Thursday’s 3,519, Wednesday’s 3,266, Tuesday’s 3,128, and Monday’s 3,270.
To date, Ontario has seen 219,120 COVID-19 cases and 5,012 deaths.
Follow Channels and Categories