Ontario plans to extend its state of emergency: Ford

Ontario is planning to extend the province’s state of emergency amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

On April 14, the province’s state of emergency was extended by 28 days, and will be in place until May 12.

At the time, the decision was based on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health and with the approval of the Ontario legislature.

“Until we see consistency for two weeks, we have to renew the state of emergency,” Premier Doug Ford said on Monday. “Once we get through this, that will be taken off the table.”

Ford also said that “hopefully, we’ll be able to see that sooner than later.”

The state of emergency in the province was first issued on March 17.

“Within eight weeks, we have come a long way,” said Ford. “But we still have a long way to go.”

The province has begun to reopen parts of the economy as of Monday.

As of May 11, retail stores reopened for curbside pick-up and delivery, in an effort to get “thousands” of people back to work, Ford said last week when he made the announcement.

The province is also expanding essential construction to allow below-grade multi-unit residential construction projects like apartments and condominiums to begin and existing above-grade projects to continue in order to “keep adding more houses and add more jobs” — also reopening Monday.

And, provincial parks and conservation reserves will reopen starting on Monday, for limited day-use access.

The Province of Ontario confirms there are 35 more COVID-19 related deaths, with 308 new cases, as of Monday morning.

This is an increase in new cases compared to Sunday’s 294, but is lower than Saturday’s 346.

The province’s total is now 20,546 but 73.6% of the cases have been resolved, with 15,131 patients recovered.