Ontario prohibits most gatherings of more than five people
The Ontario government, on the advice of Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, has prohibited organized most public events and social gatherings of more than five people, effective immediately.
This order, which was made order under the authority of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, does not apply to private households with five people or more. It would also not apply to child care centres operating to support frontline health care workers and first responders, provided the number of persons at each centre does not exceed 50 people. Funerals would be permitted to proceed with up to 10 people at one time.
“If we are going to stop the spread of COVID-19 now and keep our communities safe, we need to take extraordinary measures to ensure physical distancing,” said Premier Doug Ford. “I strongly encourage everyone to do the responsible thing and stay home unless absolutely necessary. I can assure everyone that we will do everything in our power to stop this virus in its tracks.”
“We are acting on the best advice of our Chief Medical Officer of Health and other leading public health officials across the province,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “These are extraordinary times that demand extraordinary measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect our people. Nothing is more important.”
Organized public events include parades, events including weddings, social gatherings and communal services within places of worship. This order replaces a previous emergency order which prohibits organized public events of over 50 people.
Ontario declared a provincial state of emergency on March 17, 2020 and has issued orders to close non-essential workplaces, recreational programs, libraries, publicly funded schools, private schools, daycares, provincial parks, churches and other faith settings, as well as bars and restaurants, except those that may only offer takeout or delivery. Essential services, such as grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies, public transit, manufacturing facilities, and supply chain companies remain open and operational.
On March 25, 2020, the federal government announced an Emergency Order under the Quarantine Act that requires any person entering Canada by air, sea or land to self-isolate for 14 days whether or not they have symptoms of COVID-19.
The City of Kingston has been under a municipal State Of Emergency since March 26 due to evidence of community transmission of the virus.
Until we close the weed shops and LCBO’s, were hardly in a state of emergency. Get your priorities straight you selfish, greedy politicians and media. The same goes for the public health officials, get the facts straight for this virus, none of the numbers add up, on a global scale there are still less than 1% of cases that end in death, not to mention all of the ones who end up dying are already unhealthy or had pre-existing conditions. There are so many health officials around the world who’s voices aren’t being heard simply because their evidence to doesn’t make good headlines. Our culture in general only reads headlines these days and never digs deeper into the story. As for the media, none of it is actually investigative journalism, its all gossip from one reporter to another and all they do is keep repeating the cycle. If you look back when SARS was wide spread we didn’t have nearly this much panic and declared states of emergencies, and it turned out to be far more serious of a virus than Covid-19. The same goes for AIDS/HIV when it first became a threat, we were all told that it would affect 1 in 3 of us on a global scale, yet that never happened.
Steve, I only want to comment on your remark of closing LCBO’S and weed shops….I am not sure about the side effects of stopping the use of Marijuana abruptly, but I DO know that Alcoholism is a DISEASE. That if people with this disease stop consuming alcohol abruptly, they will go into detox and likely require hospitalization.