{"id":26941,"date":"2020-07-09T19:51:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T23:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26941"},"modified":"2020-07-16T17:37:20","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T21:37:20","slug":"face-masks-will-become-mandatory-in-public-spaces-next-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/face-masks-will-become-mandatory-in-public-spaces-next-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Face masks will become mandatory in public spaces next Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Non-medical face masks will become mandatory in enclosed public spaces across York Region next Friday, July 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision was made by Regional Council on Thursday\nafternoon after a day-long remote meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The temporary measure will expire November 30, unless any\nfurther measures are passed at the Regional level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public spaces, as defined in the Region\u2019s decision,\ninclude places of business, including malls, along with places of worship,\nlibraries and galleries, community service agencies working with the public,\nevent spaces, spaces such as open houses and presentation centres used for real\nestate purposes, common areas of hotels and short-term rental establishments,\nand entertainment facilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exemptions will be made for those with medical conditions\nand for children under the age of 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Region notes in the approved motion its intent is to direct owners and operators of such spaces \u201cto display York Region-approved signage and to have a policy in place that prohibits persons from entering premises of the establishment if the person is not wearing a non-medical face covering [subject to the exemptions and that] the instruction shall further specify that best efforts shall be made by operators of enclosed public spaces in good faith, to only allow entry to persons wearing a non-medical face covering and that education rather than enforcement shall be the principle objective of the instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmove is in line with a recent decision by York Region Transit, effective July\n2, to make mask-wearing compulsory on all transit vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRegional Council remains committed to the health and safety of everyone travelling, living and working in York Region,\u201d said York Region Chairman and CEO Wayne Emmerson following the transit-related decision. \u201cAs we are re-opening and more people have come back to our transit system, it is more important than ever for everyone to play their part in keeping our families and communities safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exemptions have been made for children under the age of two, those unable to wear a face covering because of a medical condition and passengers needing assistance placing or removing a face covering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Region\u2019s debate comes as Chief Medical Officer of\nHealth Dr. Karim Kurji warned residents about an increase in cases of COVID-19\non York Region farms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have one large outbreak at a farm and a few cases\neach at several farms in York Region,\u201d said Dr. Kurji in his Monday briefing.\n\u201cThese have been proactively identified with the help of our hospital partners,\nin particular Southlake Hospital. Our Public Health inspectors have been into\nthese farms in order to give infection prevention and control advice to the\nfarmers, as well as to ensure that the living conditions are adequate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe at Public Health continue to be actively involved in\nidentifying several other outbreaks in a multitude of settings and to move in\nvery quickly in order to control these and put out the fires before they\nspread.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cases are also on the rise, he added, amongst youth\nbetween the ages of 15 and 19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what exactly is causing this and we\u2019re\nstill investigating this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Thursday night, Aurora was grappling with 12 active\ncases of COVID-19, up from single digits at the same time the previous week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date, Aurora has experienced 122 confirmed cases of\nCOVID-19, with 95 cases now marked resolved. 15 residents have lost their fight\nwith the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would like to remind you that we do need to be very vigilant,\u201d said Dr. Kurji. \u201cIt is so easy for this outbreak to get out of control again. Please ensure that you physically distance by two metres or more and if you\u2019re unable to physically distance then to put on a mask, particularly when you are indoors. Also, please wash your hands frequently and be vigilant for any signs or symptoms of COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Non-medical face masks will become mandatory in enclosed public spaces across York Region next Friday, July 17. The decision was made by Regional Council on Thursday afternoon after a day-long remote meeting. The temporary measure will expire November 30, unless any further measures are passed at the Regional level. Public spaces, as defined in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-70x","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-17 02:46:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}