Published Monday, September 14, 2020 8:19AM EDT
Last Updated Tuesday, September 15, 2020 5:30AM EDT
Ford made the comment during his daily briefing at Queen’s Park on Monday as he discussed a “concerning” rise in infections, which has now seen the province’s seven-day rolling average climb to 209. It had stood at 85 as recently as last month.
“Today’s numbers are a cause for concern for all of us,” he said in the wake of the Ministry of Health reporting its highest daily count of new cases since June 5. “Let me be crystal clear. Every option is on the table. We will take every step necessary including further shutdowns.”
Ford told reporters on Monday that he believes that the second wave of COVID-19 is coming and that the “only question left is how bad the second wave will be,” something that he said will largely be determined by how closely Ontarians follow public health guidance.
He said that right now his government has no plans to reinstitute restrictions across the province and will instead look at doing so on a region-by-region basis if necessary.
Ford also suggested that there could be measures coming to crack down on large social gatherings that have been blamed for the recent increase in transmission of the virus in Toronto, Ottawa and Peel regions.
Currently, the province’s rules allow for indoor social gatherings of up to 50 people provided that other public health guidelines are followed but some local officials, including Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, have called on the Progressive Conservative government to institute stricter limits.
“When all three docs (medical officers of health) from different areas are telling me social gatherings are the biggest problem, folks these have to stop, they just have to stop. Bottom line. And we will be coming out to discuss that further this week,” Ford said. “I will be premier dad, I will be premier granddad, I will be premier anyone. We just can’t have these folks having these reckless parties. That is what this comes down to.”