Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet is talking about diminishing the size of allowable gatherings in three areas of the province, including Toronto, in the midst of a spike in COVID-19 diseases in Ontario.
The province is hoping to downsize the size of private indoor and outdoor gatherings in Toronto, Peel, and Ottawa yet it is hazy what as far as possible will be.
Under Stage 3 of the provincial government’s resuming plan, 100 individuals are allowed to assemble outside and 50 are permitted to accumulate inside.
Sources have likewise demonstrated that new cutoff points may not have any significant bearing to organizations, which have voiced worries about how more limitations may affect the reasonability of their operations.
Ford, who will be holding a news conference at Queen’s Park this afternoon, said Tuesday that certain regions of the province will be seeing additional restrictions imposed in the coming days.
Toronto, Peel Region, and Ottawa have seen a steady rise in COVID-19 infections over the past week and Ford previously indicated that targeted measures would be coming to curb the spread of the virus.
Ontario recorded 315 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the highest daily count of infections reported since early June.
Public health officials say many of the new cases in the province have been linked to large social gatherings and events, including weddings.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has expressed concern over the size of allowable gatherings and told CP24 Wednesday that he had a “productive meeting” with the premier earlier this week where they discussed the possibility of reducing the size of gatherings on a region-by-region basis.
“I offered my support for the province to restrict those social gatherings… I don’t believe we need 50 indoors in a residence and 100 people in a backyard. I think those numbers, although consistent with what’s allowed under Stage 3, probably are larger than we need,” Brown told CP24 on Wednesday morning.
“I get complaints about people having an 89-person backyard party. Well, that’s consistent right now with what they are allowed.”
Ford will be joined at today’s news conference by Ontario’s health minister, education minister, and the president of the treasury board.
Photo credit: JOHN LAPPA /Sudbury Star/Postmedia Network
News source: CP24
