Coronavirus: Ontario extends stay-at-home for some regions, premier defends reopening | FULL

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced on Friday the extension of stay-at-home orders until March 9 for the hardest-hit regions in the province including Peel and Toronto following the advice of local health officials.

Meanwhile, Ford defended his decision to start reopening other parts of the province amid raised concerns by federal health officials over coronavirus variants' spread.

Ford said his decisions are based on the advice of the province’s health officials. Health Minister Christine Elliot said the province has a lot of safeguards in place to prevent exponential growth of cases from happening.

Retired Gen. Rick Hillier provided an update on Ontario's vaccine task force vaccine rollout progress, saying over 500,000 doses have been administered across Ontario.

On Wednesday, the province received 155,000 doses of Pfizer's vaccine, and will receive around 180,000 doses next week, while it'll get only 47,000 from Moderna instead of 90,000 next week as well.

Hillier said the task force is aiming to start vaccinating people in the age group of 80 or older by mid-March, and will start reaching out to people soon.

Ontario is reporting 1,150 new coronavirus cases on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 290,771.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/7650024/ontario-decision-covid19-restrictions-toronto-peel-york-region-north-bay/

Subscribe to Global News Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/20fcXDc
Like Global News on Facebook HERE: http://bit.ly/255GMJQ
Follow Global News on Twitter HERE: http://bit.ly/1Toz8mt
Follow Global News on Instagram HERE: https://bit.ly/2QZaZIB
#Coronavirus #Ontario #DougFord #GlobalNews