The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit has issued a public health order in the Mississippi Mills, Carleton Place and Beckwith regions to limit a significant outbreak of COVID-19.
As of Friday, all indoor sports venues were ordered to close and all facilities operated by clubs and organizations must cease rentals for private social gatherings.
The health unit has also put limits on restaurants in the area, ordering them to allow only people from the same household to sit together, along with other restrictions.
Places of worship can continue to operate but any meeting spaces must be closed, and facilities can accept only 30 per cent of their capacity limit during services.
Banquet halls and wedding venues can continue to operate under Ontario’s gathering limits — 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors — but only events hosted by the venue itself can be permitted. All guests must be seated at tables with those from their own households.
Anyone found in contravention of this new public health order can be fined $5,000 a day.
The order came into effect March 5, but the health unit did not send out information about it until the following day. It will remain in effect until further notice, the health unit says.
As of Friday, the health unit said 41 people were infected following a COVID-19 outbreak at a social gathering in the area. The health unit refused to give specifics about the outbreak, like when and where it took place, as well as how many people were at the gathering, citing privacy concerns. The health unit did say not all those infected attended the event, and announced last week significant community spread from the gathering, including in sports teams, restaurants, family units and businesses.
The health unit is working on getting updated numbers relating to the outbreak.
As of Sunday, there are 53 active cases of the virus in the region.
For further details of the public health order, see the health unit’s website.
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