Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his team have just announced that the four week stay-at-home order the province implemented last week will be extended another two weeks, among other new measures, in a news conference that was a hard pill to swallow for anyone who was still naively hoping for a somewhat normal spring and summer.

"My friends, we're losing the battle between the variants and vaccines. The pace of our vaccine supply has not kept up with the spread of the new COVID-19 variants. We're on our heels," Ford told the public in on Friday afternoon.

"But if we dig in and remain steadfast, we can turn this around." 

This is insane. Shut down playgrounds? More police powers? Holy fuck are these politicians failures.

"Ontario extends stay-at-home order, introduces new COVID-19 restrictions" https://t.co/9eEM8lLXBf

— Comrade Ali La Pointe (@BangalVelli) April 16, 2021

While admitting that most of the province has been in lockdown since last fall and that every public health measure left to implement has "a massive cost to people and their lives," Ford announced measures such as border checkpoints to discourage inter-provincial travel, stricter limits on big box store capacities, a halt to non-essential construction, and more.

Also came the news that the province's current stay-at-home order, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on April 8, will now last six weeks total, until at least May 20.

Ford also stated that there will be stronger enforcement of the order, during which people have continued to hang out in parks and perform other activities that fall outside of the "essentials" of getting groceries, medication, exercise, helping others and attending doctor's appointments.

As 12:01 a.m. Saturday, police across the province will be allowed to stop citizens found outside of their homes to ask where they live and their purpose for not being at their residence. Individuals can be ticketed if deemed to be non-compliant with the stay-at-home order.

How is this ok? How are people not outraged? Why aren't reporters standing up on our behalf?

— mounika sourial (@mounika_sourial) April 16, 2021

Earlier in the day, the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams shared some new modelling data — which, mind you, has not been known to be accurate in the past — that suggested that a six week stay-at-home order and minimum of 100,000 vaccinations per day is "the only way to flatten the curve" of the third wave.

In this best case scenario, experts predict that the province could still see 7,500 new infections per day by the end of this month.

In that presser, Williams called these "dire," "scary," and "worrying" times — times during which tension between pro- and anti-lockdowners feels greater than ever, people's mental health is suffering and their livelihoods destroyed, and ICUs are filling up with COVID patients.