As has been the case for nearly the entire year, emergency orders made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are being extended in Ontario once again, this time until at least Jan. 20, 2021.

It was all the way back in March that Premier Doug Ford and his team implemented both a State of Emergency and specific orders under it, most of which were renewed seemingly countless times on a two-week or monthly basis.

The formal State of Emergency ended with the introduction of the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act at the end of July, which effectively replaced the existing Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act indefinitely and extended certain moves taken under that emergency legislation.

These include the province's power to forcibly close select businesses and/or ask them to adhere to particular practices, set limits on public and private gatherings, and enforce other such lockdown rules they deem fit under the circumstances.

The government states that this latest extension, like the past upteen, "will support the safe delivery of health care and other critical services until COVID-19 vaccines are approved and widely available" and will not impact the movement of various regions into various stages of the colour-coded reopening framework as we move forward.