Niagara won't know if it will be moved to the red stage of the provincial COVID-19 management framework until Monday, at the earliest.
Despite health officials predicting Premier Doug Ford would be making the announcement on Friday amidst rising local COVID-19 numbers, the end-of-the-week update merely addressed areas under current lockdown, that the premier said will not be reopened on Monday.
“The trends we’re seeing throughout Ontario are very, very concerning,” said the Premier during his short address, but did not leave any word on Niagara, that is now experiencing the highest spike in daily cases since the pandemic first began.
According to a CBC article, based on anonymous government sources, the Ford government is considering a lockdown across southern Ontario from Boxing day through January 11.
