Ontarians are now under orders to stay at home.
The new state of emergency went into effect just after midnight, asking all residents to avoid non-essential trips outside of their homes, allowing only for things like picking up groceries, medical purposes, work for those who can’t do so from home, and getting outdoors for some physically distanced exercise.
Ontario premier Doug Ford was back at his podium yesterday afternoon trying to clarify his message from the day before.
“Unless it’s essential, getting food, medicine, visiting the doctors or exercise, going to work, you must, you must, I repeat that, stay home, it’s the law, and it will be enforced,” Ford says. “I know that essential means different things to different people, we have 15-million people in Ontario, each with their own individual circumstances. So we need everyone to use their best judgement.”
The public health restrictions are aimed at limiting people’s mobility and reducing the number of daily contacts with those outside their immediate household.
As for enforcement of the new regulations, municipal Bylaw Enforcement Officers and Chatham-Kent Police will be stepping up investigations and enforcement to ensure that these new measures are being followed.
The Province has added further enforcement tools for this purpose which may be used in the event that people are found breaching the Provincial public health restrictions.
Chatham-Kent residents who have concerns about violations of Provincial orders can report their concerns via phone or email. To report a concern, individuals can call 311 or email COVID19Enforcement@chatham-kent.ca