{"id":73651,"date":"2022-01-03T12:45:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T17:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=73651"},"modified":"2022-01-03T12:45:54","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T17:45:54","slug":"scoop-concert-venues-shut-ontario-goes-temporary-hold-due-omicron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2022\/01\/03\/scoop-concert-venues-shut-ontario-goes-temporary-hold-due-omicron\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP |  Concert Venues Shut Down Again As Ontario Goes On Temporary Hold Due To Omicron"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-73653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/01\/Ontario_event_omnicron_closures.jpg\" alt=\"Ontario_event_omnicron_closures\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" \/><\/p>\n<p>According to a media announcement by the Doug Ford government, the province of Ontario will be shutting down live music venues, in-person dining, and imposing other restrictions as the result of the rapidly rising Omicron variant.<\/p>\n<p>The province is calling it a temporary move to a \u201cmodified Step Two of the Roadmap to Reopen\u201d. Specifically, the measures impose restrictions become effective Wednesday, January 5, 2022 at 12:01 a.m. for a period of at least 21 days \u2013 meaning the earliest date for reopening will be January 26, 2022.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The new measures<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The new-old measures include a string of restrictions designed to curb person-to-person contact. Live events and in-person dining are suspended, with indoor gathering limited to five people.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Social gatherings<\/strong> limited to five people indoors and 10 people outdoors;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Organized public events<\/strong> limited to five people indoors;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Closing indoor concert venues<\/strong>, theatres, cinemas, rehearsals and recorded performances permitted with restrictions;<\/li>\n<li>It seems that bars will be allowed to stay open, with <strong>alcohol sales restricted after 10 p.m.<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Closing indoor dining<\/strong> at restaurants, bars and establishments, with outdoor dining (with restrictions), takeout, drive through and delivery permitted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Kids will be back to online schooling until at least January 17, and working from home is back on the menu too. The full list of restrictions can be found <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.ontario.ca\/en\/release\/1001394\/ontario-temporarily-moving-to-modified-step-two-of-the-roadmap-to-reopen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Omicron difference<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s true that the evidence seems to say that infection by the Omicron variant is less severe than its nightmare cousin Delta. However, it also seems to be much more highly transmissible, meaning even with a low rate of hospitalization, a higher rate of infection will still overwhelm medical infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the risks for severe illness are lower with Omicron than with the previous variants of concern, it is far more transmissible and hospitalizations are expected to continue to increase placing greater pressure on our health system,\u201d said <strong>Dr. Kieran Moore, Chief Medical Officer of Health<\/strong> in a media release.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the speed at which it is racing through Ontario\u2019s population that is the problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we continue with our provincial vaccine booster efforts, we must look at every option to slow the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant,\u201d said <strong>Premier Doug Ford<\/strong>. \u201cPutting these targeted and time-limited measures in place will give us more opportunity to deliver vaccines to all Ontarians and ensure everyone has maximum protection against this virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\"><em><b>#LUDWIGVAN<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n<p class=\"western\"><em>Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\"><em>Sign up for the Ludwig van Daily \u2014 classical music and opera in five minutes or less <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/ludwig-van.us9.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=4f785cb3f9058f2393ccad035&amp;id=57cdb68eac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>HERE<\/em><\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The province of Ontario will be shutting down live music venues, in-person dining, and imposing other restrictions as of January 5, 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":73653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39907,35839,39,3693],"tags":[35697,39064,39366,39063],"yst_prominent_words":[11936,30058,30572,7065,29559,8714,8798,35660,37234],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/01\/Ontario_event_omnicron_closures.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-j9V","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73651"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73655,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73651\/revisions\/73655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73651"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=73651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}