Shutdowns would last 10 days; all employees must then self-isolate
Toronto Public Health and Peel Public Health are directing all employers with five or more cases of COVID-19 in the previous 14 days to shut down.
As part of Section 22 in an Order on workplaces (Class Order for Workplaces with COVID-19), businesses must close if the cases could reasonably have been acquired through infection at work or no obvious source of infection has been identified outside of the workplace.
The closures will last 10 calendar days, with day one starting the day after the business is notified that it must close.
The first closures could be ordered as soon as April 23, impacted businesses will be contacted directly.
“This will be hard on them and their employees, but aggressive action is needed because of the rapid and wider spread of variants in Peel. These closures will let us investigate fully without risk of continuing spread. And it will help save lives,” tweeted the region.
All affected employees must self-isolate. Employees who are isolating are not permitted to work in any other workplace.
“Workplaces that remain open continue to be a major driver of COVID-19 cases in Peel, as they have been throughout the course of our emergency response. With variant spread we are also seeing transmission occur more quickly and widely,” says Lawrence Loh, medical officer of health for Peel Region.
“In the absence of legislated paid sick days, we also call on all employers impacted by expedited closure to provide paid leave for all employees impacted by COVID-19 or these new safety measures, and to consider moving as many operations as possible virtually to reduce risk.”
