 Ontario
mulls further restrictions ahead of 'wake-up call' COVID-19 case
modeling
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[January 12, 2021]
By Moira Warburton
TORONTO (Reuters) - Ontario is considering
"next steps" to limit the spread of COVID-19, Premier Doug Ford said on
Twitter on Monday, amid calls to put Canada's most populous province
under more stringent lockdown as the pandemic overwhelms its hospitals.
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 Ford is widely expected to announce further restrictions after
Ontario health authorities release new case modeling on Tuesday,
which the premier has previously described as "a wake up call to
anyone who's seen it."
Canada's economic engine has been under lockdown since Dec. 26,
shuttering non-essential businesses and extending closure of
elementary schools in some parts last week.
Yet the daily number of COVID-19 cases has spiked above 3,500 on
average over the past seven days, government data showed. That is
straining Ontario's hospitals, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC)
reported on Monday the modeling would show Ontario's intensive care
units would be filled beyond capacity by mid-February.
Ford said in a tweet on Sunday the province's healthcare system was
"on the brink of being overwhelmed."
CBC reported the new measures could include cutting hours for
essential businesses, curtailing construction activity and reducing
gathering limits to five people, down from the current limit of 10
outdoors. But the province is unlikely to impose a curfew, CBC
reported.
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 Last week Quebec, Canada's
worst-affected province from COVID-19, became
the first in the country to introduce a curfew
to limit the spread.
"If you said to me, going short of a curfew,
that you had to (impose) more hours of
restriction on when people could be going out to
get food, I would be perfectly comfortable with
that," John Tory, mayor of Toronto, told a local
TV station on Monday.
The new modeling will be announced on Tuesday
morning, a government official said.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Toronto;
Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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