Ontario moves three regions to the new COVID-19 level, imposing stricter restrictions



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TORONTO – Ontario is moving three regions to new COVID-19 levels starting Monday, imposing stricter restrictions on businesses and residents in parts of the province.

The Middlesex-London Health Unit and Thunder Bay District Health Unit will move to Orange-Restrict while Halliburton, Kawartha, the Pine Ridge District Health Unit will move to Yellow-Protect on 7 December.

“Over the past seven days we have seen trends in key public health indicators continue to go in the wrong direction in these three regions,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said Friday in a statement. “By acting proactively and moving these regions to a higher level in the picture, we are helping them reduce transmission in the community and avoid wider closures. The health and well-being of Ontarians remains our top priority. “

The York region, which is teetering on the verge of being moved en masse, avoided reaching that level this week.

The York region recorded an average of 111 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past week, which is actually higher than Toronto’s weekly incidence rate when it was blocked on November 23.

Health medical officer Karim Kurji said Thursday he would not be supporting a lockdown for the York region.

He said the additional restrictions that would accompany a formal lockdown designation, such as the permanent closure of bars, restaurants, gyms and personal care services, may not have much effect in the region.

“We have just run some models and that modeling shows that the gain from joining in bulk would be minimal, so we hope that, together with the mobility data, which shows a 20% reduction in mobility since we switched to the red zone, yes. he hopes they will convince the province to keep us in the red zone again, “he told CP24.

All other health units will remain at their current level, which includes Toronto and the Peel region as a whole.

Once a region is moved to a new tiered framework layer, it is typically kept there for at least 28 days.

With files from Chris Fox of CP24.

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