Ontario Announces Province Wide Emergency Brake

I wanted to share an update with you all regarding today’s announcement by the Premier on actions being taken to keep individual, families and workers safe.  We are facing a very situation with COVID-19 spreading quickly, infecting more people and threatening our hospitals.  As we have said many times, we will do whatever it takes to protect the health and safety of all Ontarians.

Our government, in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health and other health experts, is imposing a provincewide emergency brake as a result of an alarming surge in case numbers and COVID-19 hospitalizations across the province.

The provincewide emergency brake will be effective Saturday, April 3, 2021, at 12:01 a.m. and will be in place for at least four weeks.

Ontario’s key indicators and latest modelling show that additional measures must be taken:

• From March 26 to 28, 2021, provincial case rates have increased by 7.7 per cent to 101.1 cases per 100,000 people;
• Current COVID-19 related ICU admissions are already over the peak of wave two and hospitals in regional hotspots will need to further ramp down scheduled surgeries;
• COVID-19 related ICU admissions are projected to exceed 650 beds in a few weeks; and
• These increases are being driven by COVID-19 variants, which are transmitted easily and result in a higher risk of death and hospitalization, including in younger populations.

Measures include:

• Restricting indoor organized public events and social gatherings, except with members of the same household (the people you live with) and limiting the capacity for outdoor events to a 5-person maximum. Individuals who live alone may consider having exclusive close contact with one other household;
• Restricting in-person shopping in all retail settings, including a 50 per cent capacity limit for supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, indoor farmers’ markets, other stores that primarily sell food and pharmacies, and 25 per cent for all other retail including big box stores, along with other public health and workplace safety measures;
• Prohibiting personal care services;
• Prohibiting indoor and outdoor dining. Restaurants, bars and other food or drink; establishments will be permitted to operate by take out, drive-through, and delivery only;
• Prohibiting the use of facilities for indoor or outdoor sports and recreational fitness (e.g., gyms) with very limited exceptions; and
• Limiting capacity at weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites or ceremonies to 15 per cent total occupancy indoors, and to the number of individuals that can maintain two metres of physical distance outdoors. This does not include social gatherings associated with these services like receptions, which are not permitted indoors and are limited to five people outdoors.

I’ve included some resources, for your information:

News Release:

https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/60986/ontario-implements-provincewide-emergency-brake

Provincewide Emergency Brake:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/enhancing-public-health-and-workplace-safety-measures-provincewide-shutdown

Modelling Deck:

https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/sciencebrief/update-on-covid-19-projections-5/