BREAKING: Peel mandating even stricter restrictions than required in “Red-Control” stage

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Published November 7, 2020 at 10:06 pm

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While the province has officially moved Peel Region into the “Red-Control” category today, the Region says it will be mandating even stricter restrictions to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Citing a worsening pandemic picture, Peel’s medical officer of health Dr. Lawrench Loh has issued stricter directives to the community, including not allowing any social gatherings celebrating holidays and life events in business establishments.

Unless otherwise noted, the following directives are in effect starting Monday, November 9, and the region says they will be re-evaluated every 14 days as the situation evolves:

  • Social gatherings celebrating holidays and life events in business establishments are not allowed, starting at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 13, 2020. 
  • Wedding receptions and associated gatherings are not allowed, starting at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 13 until at least Jan. 7, 2021.  
  • Religious services, rites or ceremonies should be virtual. When not possible, inperson religious events, including weddings and funerals, must: 
  • Reduce indoor capacity to 30% capacity to a maximum 50 people per facility.   
  • Seat households and essential supports together, at least 2 metres from other groups.  
  • Bars, restaurants and other food establishments must restrict seating to people from the same household, or their essential supports. No mixed seating is permitted.  
  • Workplaces must prohibit all non-essential visitors and make work-from-home options available, as much as possible.  
  • Gyms and fitness centres must make sure all fitness class participants pre-register and provide accurate contact information to help with contact tracing if there is an exposure. No walk-in participation is allowed. 
  • Meeting and event spaces, including banquet halls, must close.  
  • Residents of Peel must restrict their contact to members of their household and essential supports only. Those that live alone may join one designated household. 
  • Residents of Peel should not visit any other household or allow visitors to their homes or yards, except for emergency reasons, including medical and repairs, renovations or construction, deliveries and one-on-one tutoring.  Proper precautions must always be used in these situations, including mask wearing, distancing, hand hygiene, and isolating if sick.

“It is time to shrink our lives to stop COVID-19 from growing completely out of control. These directives are strict, but they are what is needed to keep people in Peel working and learning, and able to access food, medical care and the basics of everyday life,” said Loh.

The region says these stricter directives have been introduced because case counts and test positivity rates remain high, public health capacity is stretched thin, and hospitals are at capacity with some procedures cancelled.

“Together, the actions and sacrifices of Peel residents and businesses will stop the spread of COVID-19, help avoid a lockdown and ultimately save lives. We must take aggressive action now to get the pandemic under control in Peel.”

Loh’s full letter to the community can be read here.

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