Peel Region moving to red level as coronavirus cases and positivity rates rise
Peel Region is moving into the red level of the province’s new framework as COVID-19 cases and positivity rates continue to rise.
On Friday, Premier Doug Ford said that the decision was made in consultation with health officials. He added that Peel is averaging 103 COVID-19 positive patients per 100,000 and the hospital capacity “is under pressure.”
On Saturday, Ottawa will be moving to the orange level as cases are “trending down,” which happened because “people are following the rules,” Ford said.
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And York Region will enter the yellow level, also due to improving health trends.
“The framework lays out a proactive and graduated response to be applied based on the local situation in each region,” Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Health said in a statement.
“By working with the medical officers of health and local authorities on the realities and situations of COVID-19, we want to continue to help protect people’s health and wellbeing. We are adapting the public health measures to be as targeted and efficient as possible to stop the spread of the virus, while managing any outbreaks as quickly as possible.”
On Tuesday, Ford announced the Keeping Ontario Safe and Open Framework, which puts all the regions into five colour-coded categories: prevent (green), protect (yellow), restrict (orange), control (red), and lockdown (grey).
Earlier in the week Ford originally announced that hotspots Ottawa, York, and Peel would move from the control level to the restrict level on Saturday, November 7.
However, Toronto will not be able to move into the next stage until November 14, at the request of Mayor John Tory.
Government of Ontario
To get out of the control level, the region must have less than 100 patients per 100,000 with a positivity rate that is below 10%.
Restaurants and gyms are still allowed to reopen in the red level, but there can only be a maximum of 10 people inside the restaurant at a given time.
For long-term care homes, visitor restrictions remain in effect for the following public health unit regions: Ottawa, Peel, Toronto, and York Region.
“Trends in public health data will be reviewed weekly. At the same time, the government will continually assess the impact of public health measures for 28 days, or two COVID-19 incubation periods to determine if public health units should stay where they are or be moved into a different level,” the province adds.
There are a total of 81,693 confirmed cases of coronavirus reported to date in Ontario with 70,086 recovered and 3,209 deaths.
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