The Ontario government has sent out a stay-at-home order emergency alert stating that people should “only leave home for essential purposes such as food, health care, vaccines, exercise or work.”
The notification reminds Ontarians that “it’s the law” and to “stay home, save lives,” before including a link to the province’s official COVID-19 information website.
Amid rising COVID-19 cases in the province, on Wednesday, April 7th, Premier Doug Ford announced that Ontario is pausing its COVID-19 Response Framework that includes coloured-coded zones in favour of a province-wide stay-at-home order.
According to the stay-at-home order, as of April 8th at 12:01am ET, Ontario residents are only able to leave their homes for necessities, including going to the grocery store or pharmacy, accessing health care services, outdoor exercise, going to work that can’t be done remotely and attending school.
Events and social gatherings are also no longer allowed, except with members of your own household (or one other household if you live alone), with outside gatherings being limited to five people. Further “discount and big box stores” can only be open for in-person sales for the following: grocery items, pet care supplies, household cleaning supplies, pharmaceutical items, health care items and personal care items.
For a full list of restrictions, follow this link.
Ontario is reporting 3,295 new cases of COVID-19 today and 19 more deaths linked to the virus.