Peel Region to order businesses with 5+ COVID-19 cases to temporarily close

Peel Public Health will order workplaces that have had five or more cases of COVID-19 in the last two weeks to close for ten days.

“Workplaces that remain open continue to be a major driver of COVID-19 cases in Peel, as they have been throughout the course of our emergency response. With variant spread we are also seeing transmission occur more quickly and widely,” said Dr. Lawrence Loh, Peel Region’s Medical Officer of Health.

The region is using a Section 22 order, which allows the medical officer of health to put stronger rules than what the province has in place.

Peel Public Health has issued an updated Section 22 that will direct all businesses with five or more linked COVID-19 cases in the previous 14 days to close for 10 days. This will allow us to investigate without risk of continuing spread. pic.twitter.com/5loKvDTvS8

— Region of Peel (@regionofpeel) April 20, 2021

The names of affected businesses will be published on the website while they are closed.

“In the absence of legislated paid sick days, we also call on all employers impacted by expedited closure to provide paid leave for all employees impacted by COVID-19 or these new safety measures, and to consider moving as many operations as possible virtually to reduce risk,” said Loh.

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Tuesday afternoon, Toronto Public Health announced its own Section 22 order to shut down workplaces with five or more COVID-19 cases.

1/4: NEWS RELEASE: Toronto Public Health issues Section 22 Class Order to close workplaces where 5 or more confirmed cases are identified within a 14 day period and where cases could reasonably have been acquired through infection in the workplace: https://t.co/fuHhGeoTaY

— Toronto Public Health (@TOPublicHealth) April 20, 2021