New rules coming to bars, restaurants, and those who should self-isolate in Waterloo Region

Region of Waterloo Public Health is expanding its tool belt with new measures being established this week.

That will affect both businesses and individuals in different ways, and mirror the measures put in place in COVID-19 hot-spots in Ontario, such as Toronto.

A Section 22 Class Order has been issued for Waterloo Region as of 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

This provincial legislation is used to compel individuals or businesses to follow public health orders. In the case of the local class order, it specifically applies mostly to those who have contracted COVID-19 or who are at a high-risk of doing so. You can read it in full here.

While this legislation was not used during the first wave by local public health officials, recent disobedience seems to have brought the hammer down.

“In the context of an increasing number of cases, we have started to encounter some instances where people are refusing to comply with public health directions, such as the direction to self-isolate,” Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang told Waterloo Region’s Committee of the Whole on Tuesday. “I have had to issue individual Section 22 Orders. This Class Order, similar to the one issued in Toronto, Ottawa, Peel, and other areas will allow Public Health to act swiftly if need be. The order is not intended for the vast majority of people who are cooperating with us and doing their best to comply.”

She went on to say that the Class Order is meant to clarify expectations around compliance for the most deliberate rule-breakers who have been previously warned.

“I will be issuing a couple of additional requirements for food and drink establishments under the Reopening of Ontario Act,” said Dr. Wang. “One, ensuring that background music or sound levels are not louder than normal conversation, so that people do not have to lean in closer, or raise their voices or shout in such settings.”

Dr. Wang noted that most businesses are working hard to comply with all the new guidelines, and most will cooperate with respect to the volume of music.

The second requirement is that those businesses collect information for each patron for the purpose of contact tracing, should Public Health need it.

Meantime, the Province’s new mask mandate will also have a new effect on how businesses and citizens operate.

“Where Regional bylaw places the obligation on individuals to wear a face-covering in certain indoor places, the Provincial regulation places the obligation on the person responsible for a business or organization to ensure that persons on their premises indoor wear a face covering,” said Debra Arnold, Regional Solicitor and Director of Legal Services for the Region of Waterloo.

The Provincial regulation also only exempts children under the age of 2 years, whereas the Regional bylaw previously exempted children under the age of 5 years.