This article was written by Jennifer Bieman, Journalist at the London Free Press and originally appears in the LFP on Dec 4, 2020.
London and Middlesex County are moving into the orange-restrict level, a provincial category that ushers in more stringent public-health regulations especially for bars, restaurants and gyms.
The Middlesex-London Health Unit is being moved up one level from the yellow-protect category to orange-restrict, the middle of five levels of restrictions, from the lowest, green-protect, to the highest, lockdown.
Orange-restrict includes the following regulations:
- The number of customers seated indoors at bars, restaurants and event venues is capped at 50.
- Those businesses must close at 10 p.m., two hours earlier than before. No alcohol can be served after 9 p.m., also two hours earlier than before.
- Bars, restaurants and event venues can only have four people seated together, down from six.
- Gyms and fitness facilities can have a maximum of 50 people in areas where there are weights and exercise machines. The yellow-protect category mandated three metres of distance only.
- No one can be at a gym/fitness facility for more than 90 minutes unless they are playing a sport.
- Personal service settings – including salons, spas and tattoo parlours – can’t perform any procedures that require a client to remove their face mask.
All schools, childcare and post-secondary institutions remain open in orange-restrict. The capacity limit for public and social gatherings remains 10 indoors and 25 outdoors, provided physical distancing of at least two metres can be maintained. There are no changes to youth team sports.
London and Middlesex County will move into the orange-restrict level at 12:01 a.m. Monday Dec. 7.
PDF Summary of sector-specific measures under the Orange/Restrict level
The province, in conjunction with the region’s top public health official, make the decision to move an area into a new restriction category based on a series of criteria, including the percentage of tests coming back positive and the case rate per 100,000.
