Bars and restaurants across Ontario will shut down earlier and all strip clubs will close, Premier Doug Ford announced Friday, saying the new rules were needed to fight a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Ford said the tightened regulations would help reduce transmission in high-risk businesses.
Bars and restaurants will now be required to close at midnight, except for takeout and delivery, and will have to stop serving alcohol by 11 p.m. The province is also ordering all strip clubs to close.
“We’ve seen doubling in cases in a very short period of time and it’s very, very concerning,” Ford said. “There’s been outbreaks and we just can’t, we just can’t chance it.”
The new rules come weeks after some mayors in the Greater Toronto Area requested restrictions on bar and restaurant hours and limits on when alcohol could be served.
Ford had initially resisted taking action, saying municipalities had the power to limit the operations of the businesses under public health regulations if they wanted to.
On Friday, however, Ford said a change was necessary while still respecting that many bars and restaurants are in deep financial distress.
“We just can’t have these places open until three o’clock in the morning,” he said. “But we’re being very balanced, I feel.”
The new rules follow a decision by the province last week to change limits on social gatherings, lowering the number of people permitted at outdoor events to 25 and indoor events to 10.
Ford also announced Friday that the province will spend an additional $741 million to help clear a backlog of surgeries that has developed at Ontario hospitals during the pandemic.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said the funds will help the health care system to build more capacity to manage case surges and outbreaks.
“We are working directly with our health care partners to ensure our … system is ready to respond to the challenges that we face with future waves of COVID-19,” she said.
Ontario reported 409 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, and one new death related to the virus.
The province said it processed 41,865 tests over the previous day, with another 65,227 under investigation.