Public health orders new restrictions
Diners must be from same household or ‘essential’ contacts
Niagara’s top public health official says he is imposing new COVID-19 fighting measures on area restaurants and bars in the hope of avoiding more provincially ordered restrictions that could create more economic damage.
During a Thursday video news conference with local reporters, Dr. Mustafa Hirji said he has issued orders with the powers granted him under Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act requiring eatery owners to collect more information about patrons.
The order, issued under Section 22 of the act which gives a medical officer of health the authority to take action to limit the spread of a communicable disease, requires restaurant staff to collect contact information from patrons as well getting confirmation that “that you are dining only with your household or persons essential to maintaining physical and mental health,” as part of an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19.
Hirji said there have been 14 “outbreak-like” incidents in Niagara restaurants and bars since Oct. 1. During these incidents, the virus spread among people — typically people in their 20s — seated at the same table or otherwise in close contact with each other.
Hirji said the order is not intended as punishment for businesses, who he said are largely
doing what they are supposed to. However, his powers under the act do not grant him the powers to target individuals, so putting in measures to change how people behave is the best option.
The order limits a maximum of six people per table even if they are from the same household, Hirji said. For someone who is an “essential contact,” a person can dine with no more than two people.
The order defines an essential contact as people such as “as caregivers or social supports to someone who lives alone.”
Among the new restrictions, which come into effect Saturday at 12:01 a.m. are:
á An establishment has to record contact information for customers, including their time of arrival and departure, which table they are at as well as an attestation that patrons do not have COVID-19 symptoms.
á If a patron does not provide the required information, which must be kept on file for 30 days for contact tracing purposes, the establishment is directed not to serve them indoors or outdoors.
á Tables must be kept at “a distance of at least two metres, or have plexiglass or some other impermeable barrier,” is between them.
á Customers must be seated at all times except when leaving, using the washroom or paying for an order.
Staff must be screened daily. The new order follows a health department email that was sent to some local stakeholders for input, as first reported by the St. Catharines Standard on Nov. 5.
The orders follow repeated warnings by Hirji that personal gatherings and close contacts have become a driver of new COVID-19 cases in Niagara — including the formation of a super-spread cluster of 20-somethings that spread the novel coronavirus in eight local municipalities, including two longterm care homes, and in GTA communities.
“The provincial government has been attempting to take a balanced approach to reducing the spread of infections: reducing social interactions enough to slow the spread of infections, but also limiting the harm to the economy and social life,” said Hirji in a Thursday morning statement. “Unfortunately, given that infections continue to rise in Niagara, that balance
has not yet been found.”
Some politicians, including St. Catharines city council, urged the health department not to impose further measures and called for better enforcement of existing COVID-19 protocols.
During Tuesday’s Niagara Region health committee meeting St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik urged Hirji not to take further action, saying the health department’s messaging “better be spot on” and incorrectly claimed headlines about COVID-19 spreading in bars was causing businesses to close.
The public health department is not primarily an enforcement agency, Hirji said, and enforcement of COVID-19 safety protocols is in the hands of bylaw departments and police. However, Hirji said Thursday health inspectors will be going to bars and restaurants to ensure compliance.