City of Ottawa officials are giving an update at 3 p.m. ET. What's the latest? The Ontario government is imposing a provincewide lockdown starting Dec. 26, returning southern portions of the province — which includes eastern Ontario — to rules similar to early spring for four weeks. Among many changes, that means only leaving home for essential reasons, delaying a return to in-person learning in schools and closing in-person dining and non-essential shopping. The province says the coronavirus is spreading too quickly, causing too many people to need hospital care and die — and those trends will continue, including spreading to areas with lower case counts, without a shutdown across Ontario.