Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, one of the experts behind the projections, says that if the province's COVID-19 positivity rate is at five per cent, Ontario will see more than 20,000 new cases a day by the middle of next month.

The premier announced the restrictions Tuesday, shortly after the province released new projections that show the virus is on track to overwhelm Ontario's health-care system.

Additionally, the government will implement new health and safety measures across the province in child care settings, including enhanced screening to align with school requirements, voluntary participation in targeted testing and additional infection prevention and control measures to align with schools.

Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario's associate chief medical officer of health, said the recent mobility data shows that many people opted not to stay in their regions following the implementation of lockdowns.

The full briefing can be read below.

The people of Toronto have questions - lots of them - following Premier Doug Ford's announcement Tuesday afternoon of even more public health restrictions aimed at slowing the exponential spread of COVID-19.

There are 1,701 patients in hospital - an increase of 138 over the previous day - including 385 in intensive care units.

S. land border will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least February 21 - another 30-day extension to the restrictions in place since mid-March.

New Brunswick is reporting two more deaths linked to COVID-19. This order will be in place for at least 28 days.

Among those measures is keeping schools closed to in-person learning in certain regions until February 10, however at this point the London region is not among those that will remain closed past January 25. In addition to limiting outings to essential trips, all businesses must ensure that any employee who can work from home, does work from home.

Another 41 deaths were recorded for a total of 5,053. Schools in Northern Ontario will continue to be open for in-person learning.

To continue to keep students, staff and communities safe, new health and safety measures will be put in place for in-person learning.

Emergency child care for school-aged children will end in approved PHU regions on January 22, 2021, as these elementary schools return to in-person learning.

The Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development is also taking additional steps to protect workers with the launch of the "Stay Safe All Day" campaign, which will focus on workplace inspections in areas of high transmissions, such as break rooms and provide educational materials to employers promoting safe behaviour before, during and after work.

"As importantly, COVID-19 is now in every region of Ontario".

Deaths in long-term care homes have hit 1,100 deaths and are expected to surpass 1,800 deaths experienced in the first wave.

Ontario says that almost 11,500 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered since its last daily update.

"Under the declaration they will have powers to disperse people and to issue tickets to bad actors - bad actors who are caught - they will get fined", said Ford.

"Stopping the growth of the pandemic is not impossible", Brown said, noting France has seen new cases drop by half, Germany is flattening the curve and life has started to return to normal parts of Australia.