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“If you had acted Australian we wouldn’t be where we are now,” she said on Twitter.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said he was “blindsided” by Ontario’s decision to enforce a province-wide lockdown, saying he is in “fundamental disagreement” with the premier over the blanket restrictions.
Ottawa, unlike the Greater Toronto Area, has had a relatively low level of new cases in recent weeks, and has largely avoided the worst of the pandemic since the early spring.
Ford justified the province-wide restrictions, saying it was necessary as a way to curb travel between provinces or between cities, which he said has caused COVID-19 cases to spike.
The measures call for all non-essential businesses to close, and essential businesses that remain open will have strict capacity limits. Students will temporarily move to remote learning.
No indoor public events or social gatherings will be allowed, except with members of the same household.
Ontarians are advised to stay home “to the fullest extent possible.”
The announcement of the sweeping lockdown came hours after new projections indicated that Ontario’s ability to control the spread of COVID-19 was “precarious.”
The data by the province’s health advisers concluded that tough lockdowns lasting a month or more could cut the number of daily cases to less than 1,000.
Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of the province’s COVID-19 science advisory table, said anything less than a four-week lockdown will not work, based on the experience of other jurisdictions.
— With files from Canadian Press
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