Ontario Government Declares State of Emergency With Stay-At-Home Order Restrictions
/Ontario Premier Doug Ford has declared a state of emergency including a province-wide stay-at-home order in a live stream press conference in Toronto at Queen’s Park on Wednesday.
The four-week order will take place at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday after top public health officials and Ottawa urged the province to do more to contain the COVID-19 variants.
The same officials reported a surge in patient overflow in hospitals and ICUs in the last week according to Ford.
During the order, Ontario plans to roll out mobile clinics to vaccine those aged 18+ who need it the most such as workers in the high-risk locations.
“These next four weeks are absolutely critical,” said Ford. “We’ve come so far already and we just need to stick together a little longer. because hope is on the horizon.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford (pictured) announced an “emergency brake” shutdown on Apr. 1. Over 2.7 million vaccines have been administered in Ontario since the press conference. Screenshot.
The following are the restrictions the Government of Ontario is putting into place in addition to the “emergency brake” shutdown on Thursday:
Grocers and pharmacies are allowed for indoor shopping
Garden centers can stay open
Big box and discount store retailers can sell essential items such as food, pet care, medicine, cleaning supplies and personal items
All other items and are restricted to curbside pickup or delivery
If the store sells the non-essential items in addition to food and pharmaceutical items, the sections must be blocked off
Non-essential retailers are limited to curbside pickup and delivery from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Residential evictions will be suspended
Shopping malls are restricted to specific purposes such as access to designated pickup locations via appointment
