The province has enacted another stay-at-home order as Ontario faces a third wave mainly driven by more transmissible and more deadly COVID-19 variants.

The order comes into effect on Thursday, April 8 and will last for at least four weeks.

It says people cannot leave home, except for about nearly 30 essential reasons:

You must not leave home, except:

  • To go to work or volunteer. The work role must be considered “essential.” Per the terms of the order, employers get to decide if a job is essential or not.
  • To go to school (some school boards have closed for in-person learning)
  • Attending, obtaining or providing child-care.
  • Receiving or providing training or educational services.”

To buy things:

  • Purchasing “food, beverage and personal care items.”
  • Obtaining healthcare items and medication
  • Buying goods or services that are “necessary for landscaping, gardening and the safe operation, maintenance and sanitation of households, businesses, means of transportation or other places.”
  • Buying or attending an appointment at any business allowed to be open, including for curbside pickup.
  • Attending a financial institution.
  • Receiving any government service including healthcare or mental health assistance.

Helping others:

  • Delivering goods or providing care to anyone in a congregate care setting or receiving goods or support.
  • Accompanying someone else outside who requires assistance to travel.
  • Transporting a child to their parent or guardian’s home.
  • Transporting a member of one’s household “to any place the member of the household is permitted to go under this Order.”

To protect oneself:

  • From domestic violence
  • Assisting someone living in unsafe conditions
  • Seeking help in an emergency situation
  • Attending a court or other location for the administration of justice

To exercise, including:

  • “walking or moving around outdoors using an assistive mobility device”
  • using an outdoor recreational amenity permitted to be open.

Indigenous rights:

  • All activities protected under Aboriginal treaty as defined by the Constitution Act of 1982.

Moving and travelling:

  • Travelling is permitted to another location if the person intends to stay there less than 24 hours and is doing so for one of the other purposes set out in the order.
  • Otherwise, travelling to another residence is only allowed if an individual intends to stay there for at least 14 days.
  • Travelling between homes of parents, guardians or caregivers in order to safeguard someone under their care.
  • “Making arrangements to buy or sell a residence or to begin or end a residential lease.”
  • Moving.
  • Going to the airport, train or bus station, “for the purpose of travelling to a destination that is outside of the Province."

Gathering:

  • If one lives alone, with the members of one additional household.
  • For a wedding, funeral or religious service that is permitted by law or making necessary arrangements for the purpose of such a gathering.

Caring for animals:

  • Buying food or veterinary services for an animal.
  • Walking an animal.
  • Preventing or avoiding an imminent risk to an animal’s health or safety, including preventing animal abuse.

Nothing in these orders apply to the homeless.