Hospitals warning of unsustainable burden on front-line health-care workers
All of Ontario will move into a lockdown on Boxing Day in a bid to curb climbing COVID-19 case numbers and spare hospitals and their intensive care units from being inundated in January, Premier Doug Ford said Monday.
The announcement comes as Ontario recorded 2,123 more COVID-19 cases and new modelling painted a grim picture of intensive care units overwhelmed with coronavirus patients if further restrictions aren't implemented.
The lockdown will begin at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 26 and remain in place until at least Jan. 23, 2021 in the 27 public health units that comprise southern Ontario, the government says.
In Ontario's north, where daily case numbers have been significantly lower, the lockdown is set to expire on Jan. 9, 2021.
Ford said the virus is spreading rapidly from areas with a high number of cases to areas with fewer cases, and the province needs to preserve capacity in its health-care system.
"This difficult action is without a doubt necessary to save lives and prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed in the coming weeks," he said.
