Leeds, Grenville & Lanark going red, Kingston area to yellow on Monday
2 health units west of Ottawa to go under tighter COVID-19 rules
Two more eastern Ontario health units will have tighter rules as of Monday at 12:01 a.m. ET.
The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit (LGL) moves from yellow to red; Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health goes from green to yellow.
Under the provincial framework for red, LGL restaurants are slated to close at 10 p.m. ET instead of midnight, and liquor sales will have to stop at 9 p.m.
The government said Friday it will "cautiously" adjust dining capacity limits at restaurants, bars and other food establishments for regions in grey, red and orange starting Saturday at 12:01 a.m.
Orange and red zones will have their capacity limits adjusted based on "scalable calculation"that would allow for up to about 50 per cent of the indoor dining area to be accessible to the public, with physical distancing. The total can't exceed 50 people inside for red zones and 100 people in orange, the province said.
In red, sports games and scrimmages are not allowed. Anyone exercising without playing sports can spend a maximum of 90 minutes in a fitness facility.
As well, movie theatres are being closed. Sensory deprivation pods, saunas, bath houses and adult venues will also shut.
Entire Kingston region now has restaurant changes
KFL&A currently has 73 active COVID-19 cases as of its Friday update. In the last week, its number of suspected and confirmed coronavirus variant cases nearly tripled to 27.
It has responded by extending an order covering gatherings and restaurants in the City of Kingston until May.
Moving to yellow means similar changes, such as a limit of six people a table, last call for alcohol at 11 p.m. and closing time of midnight for restaurant, will affect the rest of the health unit.
It does not overrule Kingston's order, which is stricter in places: a gathering limit of five people, compared to 10 indoors and 25 outdoors for private gatherings under yellow, for example.
Another new rule is KFL&A indoor fitness classes will have a limit of 10 people.
LGL recorded eight more COVID-19 cases in its Friday update, for 86 over the last week. Most of their active cases are in Lanark County, where the health unit has tightened rules.
Ottawa moved to red on the pandemic scale on Friday.
Eastern Ontario's other health units stayed put:
- The Eastern Ontario Health Unit in orange.
- Renfrew County and District in yellow.
- Hastings Prince Edward is the last remaining unit in green.
