Kingston region moving to yellow in Ontario’s COVID-19 framework Monday

Ontario Public Health announced Friday that Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington will be moving into the yellow-protect zone of the province’s COVID-19 response framework.

The change will come into effect Monday at 12:01 a.m.

This comes the same day as KFL&A Public Health announced 12 new cases in the region, for a total of 73 active cases.

The health unit also added four new variant cases to the local tally, for a total of 31 variants detected in the Kingston region so far.

Cases have risen dramatically over the last two weeks following an outbreak at Queen’s University, which first started in a residence, but quickly spread within the student body.

As of Thursday, there were 56 cases linked to the university since March 8. The university has yet to update its tracker on Friday.

But what does moving from green to yellow mean for locals? Because of a public health order currently sweeping over the city of Kingston, (it does not apply to the regions outside city borders), many things will stay the same for most of the local population.

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The local public health order only allows for groups of five to gather indoors and outdoors and requires restaurants to limit tables to groups of five people. It also requires restaurants to gather contact information for every patron who enters. The order is meant to remain in place until April 30, but Moore said it could be lifted before that if cases decrease.

Still, the region will see a few changes under the yellow restrictions — personal care providers must collect client contact information. Restaurants will have to be closed between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. Fitness and recreation facilities can only host classes with 10 people at the maximum, and can only allow gatherings of 100 outdoors.