Today, the Government of Ontario announced that it would be imposing a provincewide “emergency brake“, effective 12:01 am on Saturday, April 3, 2021. The “emergency brake” will be in effect for at least four weeks (May 1, 2021), during which time the province’s COVID-19 Response Framework will be paused.
The measures under the provincewide emergency brake include, but are not limited to:
- Restricting in-person shopping in all retail settings, including a 50 percent capacity limit for supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, indoor farmers’ markets, other stores that primarily sell food and pharmacies, and 25 percent for all other retail including big box stores, along with other public health and workplace safety measures.
- Prohibiting personal care services.
- Prohibiting indoor and outdoor dining. Restaurants, bars and other food or drink establishments will be permitted to operate by take-out, drive-through, and delivery only.
- Prohibiting indoor organized public events and social gatherings and limiting the capacity for outdoor organized public events or social gatherings to a 5-person maximum, except for gatherings with members of the same household (the people you live with) or gatherings of members of one household and one other person from another household who lives alone.
- Prohibiting the use of facilities for indoor or outdoor sports and recreational fitness (e.g., gyms) with very limited exceptions.
- Limiting capacity at weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites or ceremonies to 15 percent occupancy per room indoors, and to the number of individuals that can maintain two metres of physical distance outdoors. This does not include social gatherings associated with these services such as receptions, which are not permitted indoors and are limited to five people outdoors.
Read more about today’s announcement here. Read more about what public health and workplace safety measures are included in the emergency brake here.
Looking to support local restaurants and retailers during this lockdown? Access the chamber’s restaurant directory here and the general business directory here.
Download the COVID-19 Alert mobile app here.