Ontario declares second state of emergency from COVID-19
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Jan 14, 2021
Casas says for her that includes a plan to get vaccines out faster and closing northern Ontario schools, which are now allowed to stay open during the lockdown.
The premier added that Ontario's health care system is on the brink of collapse with COVID-19 cases and deaths at the highest levels ever in Ontario. I couldn't be any clearer.
"Enforcement and inspections will increase".
Zwibel said that there has been some issues with heavy-handed enforcement of a curfew order in Quebec but she said that she is taking some hope from allusions that Ford has made to not wanting officers approaching people in the streets just to check on what they are doing. "As simple as that", he said. That's a hard, hard lockdown.
Maria Casas, a Sudbury nurse and the policy and political action officer for local chapter of Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, is also "not sure there's a big difference" between stay-at-home order and a curfew, but believes it will be "helpful". As soon as you tell the people of Ontario you have lost trust, that's it, game over.
Ford said the stay-at-home order was indeed a drastic measure that wasn't being taken lightly.
"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. "It will depend on each one of you".
Schools in hotspot areas will remain closed until February 10 and chief medical officer of health will provide an update on January 20 on schools in other regions of the province.
"The system is on the brink of collapse...we are at levels we haven't seen before", said Ford, adding that eight new cases of a fast-spreading COVID-19 variant from the United Kingdom were confirmed.
Ontario health officials say 11,231 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered across the province on Tuesday and 144,784 doses have been administered in total.
Other public health restrictions under the state of emergency include halting all non-essential construction work, limiting outdoor gatherings to fewer than five people, and non-essential retail stores, including hardware stores, alcohol retailers, and those offering curbside pickup or delivery, must open no earlier than 7 a.m. and close no later than 8 p.m.
As part of the Safe Restart Agreement, the federal government is funding a temporary income support program that allows workers to take up to 10 days of leave related to COVID-19, preventing the risk of further spread in the workplace and well as allowing workers to focus on their health.
"We are still months away form the millions of doses to get the critical mass of people vaccinate", Ford said. Brown showed us and if that isn't scary enough, I don't know what is.
