LONDON, ONT -- As of Monday, Middlesex-London is a part of a handful of regions moving up to the yellow ‘protect’ level under Ontario’s new COVID-19 guidelines, but what does that actually mean?

On the surface life will look much the same as it did under green ‘prevent’ however some additional measures took effect as of 12:01 a.m.

Middlesex-London is not the only local region moving into the yellow.

Southwestern Public Health which covers Elgin and Oxford counties is also moving into yellow.

Other southwestern Ontario regions moving into yellow are Windsor-Essex, Huron-Perth, and Haldimand-Norfolk.

Among the new restrictions in yellow are:

  • restaurants and bars must stop serving alcohol by 11 p.m. and close by midnight, and limit the volume of music
  • personal care service businesses must obtain contact information from all patrons
  • recreational programs limited to 10 people per room indoors, 25 outdoors

Some of the rules that would have taken effect in Middlesex-London in the change from green to yellow, were already in place due to Section 22 orders from the Middlesex-London Health Unit.

However a number of those restrictions are now even more stringent, especially when it comes to fitness and recrational programs.

A full list of new restrictions can be found here and a list combined with the MLHU's Section 22 orders can be found here.