iPolitics By Iain Sherriff-Scott. Published on Dec 21, 2020 2:27pm Premier Doug Ford (left) and Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott (Steve Russell/Toronto Star)
In an attempt to prevent a post-holiday surge in COVID-19 cases, Ontario will enter a provincewide lockdown starting on Boxing Day, Premier Doug Ford said Monday.
Flanked by Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott and Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce, Ford said the measures would last 28 days in the province’s southern regions and 14 days in the north. Schools will remain closed after the winter break, with elementary students learning remotely until Jan. 11 and high-school students learning remotely until Jan. 25.
Media outlets are saying the province will announce sweeping new measures on Monday. Victoria Gibson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Kristin Rushowy, Queen s Park Bureau, Local Journalism Initiative
12/20/2020 05:22pm EST
| Updated December 21, 2020
People line up at a COVID-19 assessment center on Dec. 2, 2020, in Scarborough, Ont.
Ontario will enter a province-wide lockdown on Christmas Eve as more than 2,300 new COVID-19 cases were reported across Ontario on Sunday and the provincial government faced increasing pressure from hospitals to implement stricter restrictions.
The timing of the looming shutdown was first reported by Global News, and confirmed to the Star by a government source.
While specific details were not immediately available, elementary and high school students will likely learn online from home following the holiday break one week for younger students and three weeks for teens though not in all regions of the province, education sources said.
Ont. premier says everything is on the table amid rising COVID-19 cases but won t commit to tighter lockdown
As Ontario s hospitals called for new 28-day lockdowns for regions in the red zone, the strictest level of COVID-19 restrictions, amid record-high case counts and hospitalizations Thursday, Premier Doug Ford would not commit to any new shutdowns.
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CBC News ·
Posted: Dec 17, 2020 10:13 AM ET | Last Updated: December 17, 2020
Hospitals are quickly becoming overwhelmed as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in Ontario, the province s hospital association said Thursday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
BARRIE, ONT. York Region remains among the top four COVID-19 hotspots in the province, according to the Ontario government. On Tuesday, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott listed 154 COVID-19 cases in York Region in the last 24 hours, as the province reports its highest daily number of infections at 2,275. York Region joined Toronto, Peel Region and Windsor-Essex in the Grey-Lockdown stage of the province s tiered, colour-coded pandemic response plan at 12:01 a.m. Monday after surging case numbers. The blow comes at a critical time for most businesses relying on holiday shoppers. Under the new safety measures imposed by Ontario, non-essential businesses, including malls, had to close to indoor shopping, allowing delivery or curbside pickup only.
TORONTO Ontario has logged more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic due in part to what the province says was an update to how it extracts and analyzes data. Health officials recorded a record-breaking 2,275 infections on Tuesday and 20 deaths, marking a large spike from Monday’s 1,940 cases. The Ontario government has said the jump was impacted by an update in how Public Health Ontario (PHO) extracted and analyzed their data. “PHO changed their data extraction process and updated their data extraction time to 1:00pm (from 10:30am) for health units using CCM,” a spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a statement.