If you own a cottage on the other side of the Manitoba/Ontario border, it will become inaccessible to you as of Monday.

Daily COVID-19 case counts in Ontario are wildly out of control and Premier Doug Ford today announced increasingly severe restrictions in an effort to keep his province in check. Included in his latest public health orders are borders that are completely closed to the general public.

As of this coming Monday, all inter-provincial borders shared with Ontario will have checkpoints. Only essential workers will be allowed past these checkpoints. Travellers who are coming into Ontario for purposes other than work, medical care, transportation of goods and exercising Indigenous treaty rights will be turned back at the border.

“The restrictions will be strongly, strongly enforced because they must be,” states the Premier. “We’re losing the battle between the variants and vaccines. The pace of our vaccine supply has not kept up with the spread of the new COVID variants.”

Meanwhile, Ford’s restrictions also called for an extension of their ‘stay-at-home’ orders, which will remain in effect until May 20 instead of May 6 as originally planned.

“When they are followed, the public health measures work so what we need now, is for everyone to follow these rules. We need more time to continue vaccinating priority populations." Getting needles in arms will put this pandemic behind us.”

Ford says Ontario’s ongoing lockdown has helped to slow the spread of the virus, but more needs to be done. As of Friday afternoon, the following rules were put in place for all Ontario residents:

- Outdoor gatherings will be limited to only those in a household
- All non-essential construction will close
- All outdoor recreational areas like golf courses, basketball courts and playgrounds will close
- Reduced capacity in big-box stores to 25 percent
- Places of worship will have a capacity of 10 people indoors