Unless extended again, the state of emergency will now end on Feb. 9
(Alexas Fotos/Unsplash)
The Ontario government is extending its second state of emergency due to COVID-19 for an additional 14 days, according to a press release issued on Monday.
The declaration of emergency, made under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMCPA), began Jan. 12. This emergency declaration will now expire on Feb. 9 unless it is extended further. It was originally expected to expire on Tuesday.
All orders under the EMCPA are still in effect. These orders include the stay-at-home order, the enforcement of COVID-19 measures and the ban on residential evictions. The Reopening Ontario Act will continue to be enforced.
The Ontario government has extended the stay-at-home order until at least Feb. 11.
The stay-at-home order requires people to remain at home with exceptions for permitted purposes or activities. Permitted purposes include going to the grocery store or pharmacy, accessing health-care services, exercising and working in person when it cannot be done remotely.
The first state of emergency because of COVID-19 started on March 17, 2020. This state of emergency lasted until the Reopening Ontario Act came into effect on July 24, 2020.
An emergency declaration is terminated two weeks after being made and can be extended for up to 14 more days. Further extensions require approval from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, which can extend the declared provincial emergency for additional periods of up to 28 days.
Orders made during a declaration of emergency will terminate after 14 days unless they are explicitly withdrawn or extended.
On Monday, the Ontario government also announced it would be accelerating the vaccination of residents in long-term care, high-risk retirement and Indigenous elder care homes, aiming to have residents receive their first dose of the vaccine by Feb. 5. The government says it will protect access to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for people who have received their first dose by keeping the maximum time frame between doses at 21 to 27 days for these groups.
Ontario reported 1,958 COVID-19 cases and 43 deaths on Monday. There have been 227,494 recoveries and 5,846 deaths in the province as of Monday.
