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Ontario will move the southwestern region of Sarnia-Lambton into lockdown on Monday after a recent spike in COVID-19 cases, making it the fifth region to be under maximum restrictions in the province’s coronavirus response framework.
The government says it’s making the move in consultation with the region’s medical officer of health. According to a release from the province, Lambton Public Health’s case rate increased by 30.9 per cent, to 110.0 cases per 100,000 people, from March 3 to 9, “well above the provincial average.”
During the same period of time, COVID-19 hospitalizations in the region have increased by 33.3 per cent, the province says.
The province also says it will move the Northwestern Health unit into the second-strictest “red” category of Ontario’s colour-coded pandemic framework. The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit will move into the “yellow” category.
Aggressive COVID-19 variants have the upper hand in Ontario, which is why the province needs to vaccinate as quickly as possible, said Dr. Peter Jüni of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. 3:15
The province is also adjusting capacity limits for weddings, funerals and religious services, rites or ceremonies held in regions currently in the lockdown category, which include Toronto, Peel Region and the districts of Sudbury and Thunder Bay.
Effective Monday, those gatherings will be permitted to allow for up to 15 per cent total occupancy indoors, or up to 50 people outdoors.
“While the data shows that Ontario’s vaccine rollout is helping to save lives, the next few months are critical,” said Dr. David Williams, chief medical officer of health, in the province’s release.
“We all must remain vigilant and continue following public health advice and measures to prevent transmission, as variants of concern are continuing to become more prevalent throughout the province and threaten to undo all of the positive gains we have all worked so hard to achieve.”
A new dashboard from the province’s Science Advisory Table on Thursday tracks information about variants of concern in the province — including information about new cases linked back to those variants and the reproduction number.
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Ontario reported 1,371 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and 18 additional deaths. Hospitalizations stood at 676, with 282 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units.
Meanwhile, it was a second consecutive day of record-high vaccinations, with 43,503 doses administered yesterday. A total of 1,062,910 doses of vaccine have been administered in the province so far.
