Halton, York and Hamilton to move into red zone as Ontario updates COVID-19 framework
Posted November 13, 2020 2:52 pm.
Last Updated November 13, 2020 7:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Premier Doug Ford says the province will be lowering the threshold for their colour-coded COVID-19 framework and will be moving Halton Region, York Region and Hamilton into the red (control) zone.
Toronto and Peel Region will also be entering the red zone tomorrow with additional restrictions mandated by their health officials.
The red zone introduces new restrictions for gatherings, indoor dining and gyms.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says if you live in a red zone you should only leave your home for essential reasons.
Ford said Ontario is “staring down the barrel of another lockdown.”
Watch: Ontario “staring down the barrel” of potential lockdown, says Ford
“I will lock down quicker than you can blink your eyes,” added Ford, but says Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams still needs to determine what it will take to reach that point.
The previous threshold for the red zone was a positivity rate of over 10 per cent and weekly incidence rate of 100 cases per 100,000 people. The threshold is now a positivity rate of over 2.5 per cent and a weekly incidence rate of 40 per 100,000.
For the orange zone, it has been reduced from a positivity rate between 2.5 per cent to 9.99 per cent to a positivity rate of 1.3 per cent to 2.4 per cent.
Durham Region, Eastern Ontario, Niagara, Ottawa, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph and Waterloo are also being moved to the orange (restrict) zone.
New modelling released Thursday showed the province could hit over 6,500 cases per day by mid-December.
Ford was asked why he waited to update the thresholds. The premier said the models he saw Thursday were different than when the framework was originally introduced, with that data showing cases hitting around 1,200 per day rather than 6,500.
