The Province of Ontario has extended the stay-at-home order by an additional 14 days.
When: The stay-at-home order, which went into effect on January 14, will now expire on February 9, unless further extended.
Where: Province-wide, including all eight municipalities in Durham Region.
What: The stay-at-home order requirements, restrictions and enforcements include, but are not limited to:
- Everyone is to remain at home with exceptions for essential purposes, such as going to the grocery store or pharmacy, accessing health care services, for exercise or for essential work.
- In addition to limiting outings to essential trips, all businesses must ensure that any employee who can work from home, does work from home.
Additional restrictions
- Outdoor organized public gatherings and social gatherings are further restricted to a limit of five people with limited exceptions.
- Individuals are required to wear a mask or face covering in the indoor areas of businesses or organizations that are open.
- Wearing a mask or face covering is now recommended outdoors when you can’t physically distance more than six feet.
- All non-essential retail stores, including hardware stores, alcohol retailers, and those offering curbside pickup or delivery, must open no earlier than 7 a.m. and close no later than 8 p.m. The restricted hours of operation do not apply to stores that primarily sell food, pharmacies, gas stations, convenience stores, and restaurants for takeout or delivery.
- Non-essential construction is further restricted, including below-grade construction, exempting survey.
Enforcement
- Ontario Provincial Police, DRPS, Durham Region Health Department public health inspectors, bylaw officers, and provincial workplace inspectors will issue tickets to individuals who do not comply with the stay-at-home-order, or those not wearing a mask or face covering indoors as well as retail operators and companies who do not enforce.
- All enforcement personnel will have the authority to temporarily close a premise and disperse individuals who are in contravention of an order, and will be able to disperse people who are gathering, regardless whether a premise has been closed or remains open, such as a park or house.
These are just a few examples of the rules and regulations in place for Durham Region. For a full list of changes and for more information, visit ontario.ca.