Social gathering limits slashed

The Ontario government on Saturday, Sept. 18, drastically reduced the number of participants who could attend “informal social gatherings” such as birthday parties and backyard barbecues to a maximum of 10 indoors and 25 outdoors, effective for the next four weeks.

The former limits had been 50 for indoor gatherings and 100 for outdoors.

Premier Doug Ford on Thursday, Sept. 16, had warned he was ready to reimpose stricter regulations in light of the increasing number of new COVID-19 cases being confirmed by testing in the province.

Currently, Southwestern Public Health is tracking 10 cases confirmed by testing in its region, eight of them in Woodstock and area, one in Bayham and one in Central Elgin.