Third Ontario lockdown starts Saturday

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Ontario’s third lockdown starts Saturday.

“Ontario will pull the emergency brake,” Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday.

The lockdown is necessary to control a surging third wave of COVID-19 infections driven by more contagious and lethal virus variants, the premier and the province’s science advisory table said. Sixty-seven per cent of new cases are virus variants.

“This is a new pandemic. We are now fighting a new enemy,” Ford said, citing 2,557 new infections reported Thursday, a 41 per cent increase in hospital admissions in the last two weeks, a risk of ICU admission that is two times higher and risk of death that is 1.5 times higher than the original novel coronavirus.

More than 420 people — 46 per cent of them age 59 or younger — are in intensive care units, more than during the peak of the second wave.

“We have never had more Ontarians in intensive care than we have now,” Ford said.

The surge threatens the health care system’s ability to handle severe illness, the science table said.

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Vaccination and public health restrictions are the only ways to control the surge, the science table said, but even then ICU admissions are expected to reach 800 by later this month.

“We are in a desperate race right now against an extremely aggressive and fast moving virus,” Ford said.

The shutdown will last “at least” a month, Health Minister Christine Elliott said.

Grocery stores and pharmacies will be limited to 50 per cent capacity and non-essential retail stores to 25 per cent capacity. Restaurants will be limited to takeout and delivery orders. Bars, personal care services, such as hair salons, and gyms will all be closed. Weddings, funerals and religious services will be limited to 15 per cent capacity indoors and two metres between guests outdoors. No indoor gatherings will be allowed except among household members, and outdoor gatherings will be limited to five people.

Schools will remain open, but there was no decision on what will happen after the spring break April 12-16. The science table recommended minimizing disruption in schools because of the “significant and highly inequitable impact.”

There is no stay-at-home order, although Elliott asked people to leave their homes only for essential trips.

The stay-at-home order in January “had a tremendous ill-effect on children and adults,” she said. “We have to balance any measures we take with people’s mental health.”

Just like last year, the premier asked people not celebrate Easter this weekend with anyone outside their households.

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“I’m asking everyone to only gather with your immediate household,” he said.

He blamed large gatherings and people travelling from regions that are locked down to regions that are not for part of the surge.

“A lot of people are letting their guard down,” he said.

After a year, it’s harder to make the decision to lock down and harder for people to accept it, said Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens.

“This will probably be the most uncomfortable four-week lockdown in the whole pandemic because it’s getting harder to keep the public on board with this,” he said.

While the number of cases and hospitalizations here is not as dire as in other regions, the numbers are beginning to rise, with 89 cases last weekend and cases reaching 37 two days this week and 54 one day.

Only 14 people were reported hospitalized for COVID-19 here Thursday, but Windsor Regional Hospital remains on standby to accept patients from hospitals that don’t have enough beds.

“Any of these lockdowns, these are hard on everyone — it’s not easy for anyone,” said local Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed. “I understand that, but I think the broader community, our community has seen how bad it can get, and how quickly we have lost lives, how quickly we have seen the cases rise.”

Mike Wetzel, owner of John Max Sports & Wings in South Windsor, was slowly opening his restaurant and bar again, bringing back servers and hosts, after restrictions were eased.

Now, those employees will be off the job again, with the restaurant down to 30 per cent of its normal staff, and Wetzel will have to adjust the menu and inventory again to pivot to takeout.

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“Each time we do this, we call it survival mode,” he said. “We have to think about our future and be very cautious.”

Luis Mendez this week finally regained the members he lost at his downtown gym, True Fitness, in the last lockdown.

“Every time we get shut down we lose business, we lose revenue, we lose members,” he said.

The lockdown isn’t justified here this time, he said, because this region doesn’t have as many cases as other regions.

He doesn’t believe small businesses contribute to significant spread, either, he said.

The government is offering another round of grants of up to $20,000 for small businesses, Ford said.

This will probably be the last provincewide lockdown before enough people are vaccinated, Dilkens predicted. This region will receive 10,500 doses a week of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this month, he said.

Ontario needs to bridge the gap between now and when enough people can be vaccinated, Ford said.

“The faster we can get vaccines into arms, the faster we’re going to be able to move forward,” Dilkens agreed.

About half of city hall staff had returned to the office, but will now work from home again. City hall, the parks and recreation office and parking enforcement will all be closed. Transit Windsor will continue at its current service level.

ajarvis@postmedia.com