Premier Doug Ford has just formally announced a blanket lockdown of all regions in Ontario, which will come into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 26, inside sourcesleaked over the weekendand Ford confirmed during his presser today.

The new measures will place all parts of the province under something similar to, but separate from the rigid grey-zone lockdownthat Toronto and Peel enteredback on Nov. 23, followedby York and Windsor-Essexon Dec. 14 and Hamilton today, Dec. 21.

The province'searlier colour-coded frameworkwill be paused while the new shutdown takes place.

So the government put certain regions of Ontario into lockdown but didn’t enforce them. So obviously, the cov-idiots left for non restricted regions to do their shopping & hang outs. So because the government didn’t enforce it, the whole province suffers? Fucking ridiculous.

— DAJH (@Haggart9)December 21, 2020

This will mean the end of personal care services, dining at bars or restaurants and shopping in-person at retailers — pickup and delivery is still okay — and that private indoor gatherings will be completely forbidden, amongother heavy-handed orders.

What differs from this development and the first of the grey-level shutdowns is that different parts of the province will be subject to different durations of the the restrictions: those north of the Sudbury area, which is a four hour drive from Toronto, will be locked down for a minimum of two weeks.

Those in the southeastern parts of the province below that city, meanwhile, will face the measures for at least four weeks.

What’s frustrating is the stupidity of people. I live in Newmarket where we have 58 active cases as York Region rises daily, but because of the south, we got shut down. Wear your mask, social distance, don’t have big parties, and we all could have seen our parents for Christmas.

— Ray Rauth (Blue checkmark pending) (@dpn_ray)December 21, 2020

This is in addition to the weeks that some residents have already borne the most stringent form of the provincial government's pandemic shutdown.

Students, who contentiously returned to classrooms in September, will also have their holiday break extended, with elementary students resuming in-person classes on Jan. 11, and secondary students on Jan. 25.

I see we're going for the lockdown world record. Good luck, Ontario!

— The Can of Nothing (@CanofNothing)December 21, 2020

The move comes just prior to the holidays when people are more likely to gather with friends and family after a hell of a year, including Christmas and New Year's.

Specifics of the orders that residents will need to follow do not include anything as severe as a curfew, as was seen (and yielded success) in such placesas Melbourne, Australiaearlier in the health crisis, but do include further cuts to the list of essential businesses permitted to maintain somewhat normal operations.

28-day lockdown coming?

It is so like 2020 to bleed into 2021.

— Matt Whittaker (@mdwhittaker)December 21, 2020

Despite more drastic public health rules, the number of COVID-19 cases in the province has remained high in recent weeks, with around 2,300 new cases each day for the last few days amid record high testing levels and a pretty steady per cent positivity of around five.

The mortality rate from the communicable disease in Ontario currently sits at approximately 2.7 per cent with 4,150 deaths, the large bulk of which — 69 per cent — have been in patients 80 and over.