Ontario Premier Doug Ford has announced new restrictions for the province.
Outdoor recreation facilities such as golf courses, basketball courts and playgrounds will need to close.
Ontario has also extended the state of emergency and stay at home orders another two weeks.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says some of the restrictions include setting up checkpoints at the provincial border crossings, shutting down non-essential construction and only allowing outdoor gatherings of those in the same household.
Ford says restrictions will be strongly enforced.
COVID-19 modelling released today shows that if Ontario had the supply to ramp up to 300,000 vaccinations a day it would have a significant impact on the ability to handle this third wave.
The province says in the short term they’re not expecting to get the supply required to do so.
On April 12, Ford announced that all publicly funded and private elementary and secondary schools in the province will move to remote learning when students return from the school break on April 19th.
Private schools were to transition to remote learning by April 15.
The government also intends to implement the following public health and workplace safety
measures effective Saturday, April 17, 2021 at 12:01 a.m.:
• Prohibit all outdoor social gatherings and organized public events, except for with members
of the same household or one other person from outside that household who lives alone or a
caregiver for any member of the household;
• Close all non-essential workplaces in the construction sector;
• Reduce capacity limits to 25 per cent in all retail settings where in-store shopping is
permitted. This includes supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, indoor farmers’
markets, other stores that primarily sell food and pharmacies; and,
• Close all outdoor recreational amenities, such as golf courses, basketball courts, soccer
fields, and playgrounds with limited exceptions.
In addition, effective Monday, April 19, at 12:01 a.m., the government is limiting the capacity of weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites or ceremonies to 10 people indoors or outdoors.
Prohibiting social gatherings associated with these services such as receptions, except for with members of the same household or one other person from outside that household who lives alone.
Drive-in services will be permitted.
All other public health and workplace safety measures for non-essential retail under the provincewide emergency brake (i.e., curbside pick-up and delivery only), will continue to apply.
To further support “hot spot” communities where COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted certain neighbourhoods, as part of Phase Two of the government’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan, the government is committed to dedicating 25 per cent of future vaccine allocations to the 13 public health regions with historic and ongoing high rates of death, hospitalization and COVID-19 transmission.
