As predicted York Region has been placed into a modified Stage 2, pandemic status forcing the closure of indoor dining, gyms and movie theatres.
Premier Doug Ford made the announcement Friday afternoon:
York Region joins Toronto, Peel Region and Ottawa who were placed into a modified version of Stage 2 of Ontario’s reopening plan one week ago.
For Communities in modified Stage 2, restaurants, bars and other food and drink establishments, including nightclubs and food courts in malls, will no longer be able to provide indoor dining services.
All indoor gyms and fitness centres, including yoga and dance studios, will be closed along with cinemas and gaming establishments.
Schools and daycare centres have remained open in these COVID-19 hotspots under the modified Stage 2.
The province has been warning it might have to expand the number of regions who reverted to Stage 2 for the past week, saying on Thursday that York Region specifically has “been teetering for a little while” in their daily number of reported COVID-19 cases.
York Region has reported an average of 76 new daily cases of COVID-19 over the last week but on Thursday, they racked up 127 new infections. Only Toronto and Peel reported more COVID-19 cases that day.
On Friday, that number decreased to 62 cases in York Region compared to Toronto (213), Peel Region (135) and Ottawa (108) Health Minister Christine Elliot said despite today’s dip in cases the decision still stands because the overall disease trend in York Region remains very concerning.
There have been more than 62,000 lab-confirmed positive cases of the novel coronavirus in Ontario since the beginning of the pandemic.
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