COVID-19: Traffic jammed as Ottawa police set up checkpoints at Quebec border

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Traffic was backed up on the bridges connecting Ottawa and Gatineau Monday morning as police began enforcing new pandemic travel restrictions.

The morning rush hour slowed to a crawl as vehicles waited in lineups at Ottawa police check points set up at midnight to restrict the movement of vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists from Quebec.

Commuters were waiting an hour to get across interprovincial bridges as Ontario’s strict new stay-at-home order takes full effect.

On the Quebec side, traffic on Highway 50 was backed up for several kilometres to la Vérendrye Boulevard.

Ottawa police were not turning people around or ticketing on Monday, with stops initially aimed at “informing and sensitizing” people about the new restrictions.

There are five bridges that connect Ottawa and Gatineau.

Officers were also to be stationed at the Quyon and the Bourbonnais ferries.

Ottawa police will question Ontario-bound travellers while Gatineau police are expected to screen those bound for Quebec, which has also announced interprovincial border control measures.

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Ottawa police said they will not demand doctor’s notes or letters from employers.

“We have to trust that people are going to be honest. This is not a police operation, it’s a public health operation with the support of the police,” Ottawa police Insp. Michel Marin told reporters Sunday.

Marin said Ottawa police will only be stopping private vehicles, not commercial ones. “We’re trying to plan this in a way such that it will be a very short conversation,” he said, “and people will be allowed on their way.”

According to the new powers granted to police, anyone can be questioned about their reasons for entering Ontario. Individuals will be required to provide their name, address and reason for travelling.

The province has said only those travelling to Ontario to return home, to go to work, to transport goods, to exercise Aboriginal treaty rights or to obtain health-care services will be allowed to cross the border. Some cross-border travel will also be allowed for compassionate and humanitarian reasons.

If an officer reasonably believes a traveller is not complying with the stay-at-home order, the individual can be ordered to return to Quebec.

Ottawa police said they will focus on education during the first three days of the operation. All officers will be wearing personal protective equipment, and the service has asked that members of the public wear masks when speaking to officers.

The Ontario Provincial Police said they will also have officers stationed on Highway 417 just west of the Ontario-Quebec border and on Highway 401.

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Before the pandemic, on an average day, more than 180,000 trips were made between the two cities that face each other across the Ottawa River.

In an interview on CBC radio Monday morning, Mayor Jim Watson criticized the provincial government for not giving municipalities warning of the border restrictions.

COVID-19: Ontario cases top 4,000 again

Ontario reported another 4,447 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday and 19 deaths. The total is up  from the 4,250 cases recorded Sunday and 4,362 cases on Saturday.

The most cases reported Monday were in Toronto, which reported 1,299, followed by Peel (926); York (577); Ottawa (233); and Hamilton (227).

The new figures raise Ontario’s total number of COVID cases since January 2020 to 421,442 and its death toll to 7,735.

The number of people in hospital with the disease continue to climb. There are 2,202 COVID-related patients reported in Ontario hospitals on Monday, with 755 of them in ICU and 516 on ventilators.

Opposition politicians criticized the government during Question Period, asking why more is not being done to protect vulnerable essential workers through measures such as paid sick leave.

Government House Leader MPP Paul Calandra said he expected the federal budget to be unveiled later Monday will include changes to the COVID-19 sick benefit program. The program provides $500 a week for up to four weeks for people who must miss work because of the disease.

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“We expect that those changes will include a vaccination day, a paid vaccination day for essential workers and it will include an elimination of the gap between when a worker can apply and receive that benefit,” said Calandra in the House.

The Ontario government has resisted calls to institute paid sick days, saying the federal government already provides emergency relief. Critics say the federal program is hard to access and only provides benefits after most of a week’s work has been missed, which leaves out workers who miss a day or two while waiting for a COVID-19 test, for instance.

About 300,000 Ontarians have used the federal program, said Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton in the legislature. He emphasized that his government brought in legislation that prevents employers from firing workers for taking unpaid leave for COVID-19-related purposes.

Ontario reported 66,897 vaccine doses were administered in the province in the 24-hour period ending Sunday afternoon, for a province-wide total of 3,904,778. The number of Ontarians who have been fully vaccinated increased by 695, to 346,005.

The province is under a sweeping stay-at-home order made Friday by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his government.

Besides the provincial border restrictions, the order closes outdoor recreation facilities, including golf courses and tennis courts, prohibits outdoor social gatherings except with members of the same household, closes non-essential construction sites and shuts interprovincial border crossings to all but essential travel.

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Over the weekend, after being bombarded with criticism, Ford softened two elements of the order by opening park playgrounds to children and by curtailing some of the powers previously handed to police.

On Monday, about 1.5 million Ontario elementary and secondary students returned to class online at home  after a week-long spring break.

The province has closed in-person classes indefinitely because of rising community transmission of the virus. The exception is students with special-education needs who can’t learn online. They are allowed to attend school in-person.

In Ottawa, the major school board was forced to shift gears after the provincial Education Ministry ordered schools to begin Zoom-style live classes on Monday. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board had already told parents that Monday would be a day for educators to plan for lessons, and no live online classes would be held.

On Sunday night the board posted a notice on its website saying parents and students would receive guidance from their school on Monday to assist with the shift to remote learning, including the  daily school schedule and information on learning resources and activities to take place.

The province has directed that online learning at home must include 180 minutes of live instruction for kindergarten students and 225 minutes for students in Grades 1 to 12.

The Ottawa Catholic School Board had already planned to start live virtual instruction on Monday.

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COVID-19: 203 more cases reported in Ottawa

Ottawa Public Health reported 203 new COVID-19 cases on Monday and no new deaths.

The new figures bring the total number of COVID cases in the city to 22,038 since the pandemic started, and 482 deaths.

There are currently 3,412 active cases. Of those, 131 people are in Ottawa hospitals with COVID, 34 of them in ICU.

The seven-day infection rate, meanwhile, is 217.8 per 100,000 population.

Under the province’s old colour-coded pandemic guide, a rate of 40 was one of the indicators that would push a region into the red zone.

The city’s test positivity rate for the week is 10.9 per cent, more than five times the threshold of 2.5 for the red zone.

The number of confirmed variant cases in Ottawa, meanwhile, show 1,771 B.1.1.7 (UK) cases and six B.152 (South African) ones.

In other health units in the region, Leeds, Grenville and Lanark reported 12 new cases, while Kingston confirmed 11. Eastern Ontario Health Unit saw its case numbers go up by 32, while Renfrew County reported 11 new cases.

CHEO CEO Alex Munter said Sunday he has been told that Toronto will send more than 200 seriously ill COVID-19 patients to hospitals across the province this week. Dozens are expected to arrive by air ambulance in Ottawa hospitals.

COVID-19 across the country

In Quebec, 1,092 new COVID cases were confirmed Monday, along with 15 new deaths.

That brings the province’s overall case count to 338,044 since the pandemic began, and a death toll of 10,816. One death previously attributed to COVID-19 was removed from the province’s tally.

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Only two of the new deaths occurred in the most recent 24-hour reporting period. Eleven occurred between April 12 and 17, and two took place before that.

There are 686 COVID patients hospitalized in Quebec, including 183 in intensive care.

Additionally, the province administered 40,433 vaccine doses in the most recent 24-hour reporting period, for a province-wide total of 2,399,934.

In the Outaouais, meanwhile, 109 new cases and no new deaths were reported Monday. Overall, there have been 10,390 confirmed cases in the region, and 185 deaths.

Where to get tested for COVID-19 in Ottawa

Updated information on COVID-19 testing: www.ottawatestingupdate.ca/
Brewer Ottawa Hospital/CHEO Assessment Centre: Open seven days a week, from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
COVID-19 Drive-thru assessment centre 300 Coventry Rd.: Open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m, appointment only.
The Moodie Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The Heron Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Ray Friel Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Howard Darwin Centennial Arena on Merivale Road: The site will remain open for at least two weeks, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., for anyone older than four. Those wanting to be tested must make an appointment by calling 1-877-232-8828, a line scheduled to be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Ontario vaccination portal:covid-19.ontario.ca/book-vaccine

Call centre: 1-888-999-6488. The Vaccine Information Line is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is capable of providing assistance in 300 languages.

Vaccine eligibility in Ottawa:secureforms.ottawapublichealth.ca/vaccines/COVID-19-Vaccine-Screening-Tool

To book a pharmacy vaccine: Eligible adults aged 55 and over who are interested in booking an appointment can visit ontario.ca/pharmacycovidvaccine to find a participating pharmacy