Toronto and Peel regions will remain in lockdown until at least January 4th, the province confirmed Friday, as Hamilton joined those areas, as well as York and Windsor-Essex in the grey lockdown zone.
Premier Doug Ford confirmed earlier in the day that the formal ends of the lockdown stages scheduled for Monday would be extended, as the province continues to see case counts rise and hospital capacity strained.
Groups like the Ontario Hospital Association, Ontario Medical Association and Registered Nurses of Ontario are calling for extended lockdowns to begin Monday, which is when Ford says we will learn more details about what those could be.
"I want to listen to what's happening on the ground, within hospitals, and within ICU units," he said ahead of a scheduled emergency meeting with hospital CEOs in the afternoon.
He said there will more emergency meeting over the weekend, before we learn how things may change.
"We'll be announcing Monday at 1 o'clock moving forward," he said. "With all of your support, we will get through this."
For example, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie is calling for a fresh GTHA wide-lockdown starting Monday.
Other regions that moved into zones included Brant County and Niagara Region going into Red-Control and Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health going to Orange-Restrict.