COVID-19: Ontario extends stay-at-home order, announces additional restrictions – April 16, 2021

In a news conference at Queen’s Park, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and provincial cabinet ministers Christine Elliott (health), Monte McNaughton (labour) and Solicitor General Sylvia Jones provide an update on their government’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) pandemic. They are joined by Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health. The premier announces an extension of the province-wide stay-at-home order by two weeks, to six weeks total, as well as a number of additional public-health measures. New restrictions include the closure of provincial borders to all but essential travel, the restriction of outdoor gatherings to household members only, increased powers for police and bylaw officers, the limiting of essential businesses to 25 per cent capacity, the shutting down of all non-essential construction, and the limiting of capacity of places of worship to ten people indoors. Checkpoints at all interprovincial borders will be set up starting April 19. In his remarks Ford also calls on the federal government to immediately tighten restrictions on international travel. The update comes amid bleak new provincial COVID-19 modelling data and record-breaking infection rates.