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Ontario-wide shutdown begins on Boxing Day

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The Ontario government has announced that there is a province-wide shutdown starting at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday (Boxing Day) due to the increasing positive COVID-19 cases and deaths.

The lock-down will go into effect for all of Ontario until January 9th, 2021, and remain in effect until January 23rd for all 27 public health unit regions in Southern Ontario.

Earlier today, the province released modelling data that showed that under the current restrictions, cases will reach at least 1,500 per day for several weeks. The data suggests that ICU occupancy will be above 300 beds within 10 days and worst case scenarios show occupancy above 1,500 beds by mid-January.

Hospitalizations have increased by 74% over the past four weeks and the number of COVID-19 patients in the ICU is above the 150-person threshold.

The government says “hard lock-downs” in France and Australia of 4-6 weeks proved that it can reduce numbers drastically. Based on those predictions they believe that Ontario can be less than 1,000 per day and possibly much lower following the lock-down.

Residents and businesses will have to act under the guidelines of the grey-lockdown category of the Provincial COVID-19 Response Framework. This framework, “Keeping Ontario Safe and Open” will be re-enacted following the shutdown.

As part of the shutdown, school closures over the winter break will be extended. Students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 will resume classes on Jan 11th. High school students will return remote learning on the 11th and return to in-class on January 25th

“I want to be clear, schools are not part of the problem of COVID in our communities,” said Premier Doug Ford during his press conference today. “But out of an abundance of caution school break will extended. Asking students and staff to stay home a little longer will make sure we do what is needed to control the spread.”

The province hopes that this shutdown will help interrupt or slow current community transmission, reduce mobility and allow health care and public health systems that are reaching critical limits to “recover briefly and catch-up.”

CHCH News will continue to follow this story and provide the latest during the Evening News at 6:00 p.m.

 

The following are data charts provided by the Ontario government today.