Daily News – Wed. January 13 2021

Here’s your CFRC Daily News Brief for Wednesday, January 13 2021!

A COVID-19 update; yesterday in the KFLA public health region we had 3 new cases bringing our active case count to 47 cases. Yesterday in Kingston, long-term care workers received their first dose of the vaccine at KGH. This is exciting news in the face of new provincial measures coming our way on Thursday. 

The announcement came yesterday that Ontario is declaring our second provincial state of emergency to address COVID-19 and is initiating a stay-at-home order. All of this begins this evening at midnight and in effect starting tomorrow. These new orders requires everyone to to remain at home with the exceptions of going to the grocery store or other food retailer, pharmacy, and accessing health care services. 

The goal of these new measures are to limit our mobility around town to reduce our daily contacts and potential exposures to the virus.  It is important to remain with those only who reside in our households. A few clarifications: 

If you can work from home you are now asked to do so. Outdoor public gatherings are now limited to five people, this means your household. Masks are required in any and all public spaces and outside if you are unable to maintain 2m distance.

All stores that are not restaurants or food retailers like take-out and pharmacies must close by 8pm (this means things like hardware or liquor stores). These enhanced measures are anticipated to stay in affect until February 11th.   

City of Kingston is offering emergency childcare to essential workers during this time. If this is something relevant to you, you can find more information at the City of Kingston website.