In a press conference today, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie and Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Alex Summers introduced two new Class 22 orders.
The orders will be taking effect this Thursday at 12:01 PM.
The first order pertains to all people under the health unit’s banner, and reiterates the gathering limits put in place by the Reopening Ontario Act. Exemptions in that act are also exempt in this order as well.
“This order does not apply to indoor or outdoor weddings, funerals or religious rites, rites or ceremonies,” Dr. Summers explained, “but it does apply to social events that may happen around those events, such as a wedding reception.”
The second of the two orders pertained more to facilities that serve food and drink. Dr. Mackie said they introduced this order to “address the triple exemption.”
“So you’ve got an exemption really to gathering limits, you potentially can have very large numbers of people gathering in those facilities,” Mackie said.
“If you combine that with the exemption around eating or drinking, which allows people to take their masks off, and the exemption around doc dancing, which allows people to be in very close proximity, you end up with potentially problematic situations.”
The hope with the second order is that the facilities will be allowed to continue operating, while still being safe for attendees.
Another inclusion with these two orders is a rework of how Covid Protocol violations and their associated fines work.
“What we’re offering here is a different additional path for enforcement’s and basically doubles the fines. For some people, we hope that that will help them to make a better decision.”
The fines start at $750 for an individual and up to $1000 for a corporation or organization, with repeated offences escalating to $5000 per day and $25,000 per day respectively.
These come after a video surfaced on social media of a party in London, showing very clearly no Covid-19 prevention methods were in place. Dr. Mackie commented on the video both on social media and during the conference.
This was a club in London, ON this past Saturday. Would have been reeeeeally good to have that vaccine requirement in place by now… 😬 pic.twitter.com/SeWJ03MBDm
— Steven (@smjevnikar) September 12, 2021
More information regarding the orders can be found here.
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