![Ontario premier to make announcement Monday after cabinet met to discuss new COVID-19 restrictions](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.5726166.1641216890!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg)
Ontario premier to make announcement Monday after cabinet met to discuss new COVID-19 restrictions
CTV
Ontario Premier Doug Ford will make an announcement on Monday following a cabinet meeting yesterday on possible new COVID-19 restrictions, including shutting down indoor dining, tighter gathering limits and further school closures.
Sources told CTV News Toronto that the Ford government met on Sunday to discuss the possible new measures in order to protect hospital capacity and deal with the surge in COVID-19 cases due to the highly-contagious Omicron variant.
The cabinet discussed banning indoor dining, lowering indoor (from 10 to five fully vaccinated people) and outdoor gathering limits, and decreasing capacity at essential retail to 50 per cent and 25 per cent for non-essential retail, sources said.
Sources said the government is also considering putting limits on gyms and personal care services, as well as banquet halls and weddings. It is also looking into cancelling ticketed events and closing in-person schools/implementing virtual learning for two weeks.
If the measures are approved, the government is planning to implement them as early as Wednesday and will be in place for three weeks before they are reassessed, sources said.