Toronto and the Peel region go into solitary confinement for at least 28 days



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Toronto and Peel are officially under the lockdown phase of the Ontario framework for COVID-19 restrictions, which means that all non-essential retail stores are limited to curbside pickup and a wide range of other businesses are closed completely.

The most affected regions entered the category at 12:01 am and will remain under the additional restrictions associated with it for at least the next 28 days.

It means that retail stores, with some exceptions for grocery stores, hardware stores, discount stores and big boxes selling groceries and corner shops, will be prohibited from allowing customers to enter their stores. Personal care services, such as barbershops and salons, have also been forced to close and restaurants are now limited to just take-out food.

Meanwhile, new rules have come into effect in Toronto and Peel to limit all indoor encounters to only those living in the home. The limit for outdoor meetings has also been lowered from 25 to 10 people.

What is allowed and what is not blocked

“The main thing people can do now is stay home,” Mayor John Tory told CP24 on Monday morning. “It is less important in the context of achieving the result what kind of shops are closed and not closed. It is more important that people decide to follow the advice, which is whether it is possible to stay at home. “

The province announced further restrictions for Toronto and Peel on Friday, as new cases of COVID-19 continued to grow in both jurisdictions.

In anticipation of the rules coming into effect, several shopping malls extended their hours over the weekend and there were reports of long lines in stores.

Speaking with CP24, Tory said the new and strict rules are important, even if there isn’t much data indicating widespread transmission in contexts like retail stores, for example.

“We don’t know in any single case exactly where people got this virus, we just know that it is spreading and spreading in a way last week and the week before and the week before which was clearly unacceptable in terms of the trend line. we were on, “he said. “Look, today is a sad day just to see this kind of thing that has to happen, but again the choice was not to do this kind of thing and have a much longer, much wider, much worse kind of block. after when we had completely lost control of this thing as you have seen in other parts of the world. “

While the block will close a number of businesses across Toronto and Peel, schools and daycare centers will remain open as well as essential services such as dentists and physical therapists.

Industries such as film production and construction that were largely shut down in the spring will also continue to operate with restrictions.

This means that many of the major Hollywood productions currently shooting in the GTA will not be discontinued, including a film starring comedian Kevin Hart.

“I am a little concerned that this closure does not focus on the wider area of ​​diffusion. In Brampton, our biggest transmission source is industrial environments. Our two main sectors are transport logistics and food processing and none of those sectors have been closed as essential, “Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown told CP24 on Monday.” So this isn’t really a blockade for Brampton. . Small businesses have been closed, but since most of our workforce is made up of essential workers, nothing has really changed. “

In addition to the new rules in Toronto and Peel, the Durham and Waterloo region have now also been moved to the red category alongside the York region. The rules for that category limit restaurants, gyms, and food courts to 10 indoor people at a time.

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