In reports from Global News and Toronto radio station 680 News attributed the information to sources briefed on the plan.
The outlets said the lockdown, which will vary in length depending on the region, is set to be announced Monday afternoon.
A spokesperson for Premier Doug Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the government has said new measures would be announced Monday.
For six days in a row, Ontario has reported more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases every 24 hours.
On Sunday, the data showed that 2,316 more people in the province had tested positive for the disease. That includes 486 in Toronto, 468 in Peel, 326 in York Region, 151 in Windsor-Essex County and 128 in Niagara.
Twenty-five additional COVID-19 deaths were also reported. There are 875 people hospitalized with the disease across the province, including 261 in ICU, with 156 on ventilators.
Ottawa Public Health reported 39 new confirmed cases, and no additional COVID-19 deaths.
In the surrounding regions, the confirmed case count rose by 22 in Eastern Ontario, 13 in Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington, seven in Hastings Prince Edward, five in Renfrew County and District, and three in Leeds, Grenville & Lanark.
OTTAWA
New outbreaks of COVID-19 were reported Sunday at the hard-hit Extendicare West End Villa and Madonna Care Community long-term care homes, both involving one staff case.
In the spring, an outbreak at Madonna saw 157 cases among residents and staff, as well as the deaths of 47 residents and two staff members. In the fall, 134 infections and 18 resident deaths were recorded during an outbreak at the West End Villa. However, there have been other outbreaks at the residences that were resolved after just one case was recorded.
New outbreaks were also reported Sunday at a workplace in the community and at École élémentaire catholique Terre-des-Jeunes. The latter has seen two students test positive, according to Ottawa Public Health reporting.
Ottawa Public Health reported that 18 Ottawans were hospitalized with COVID-19, none in ICU.
CANADA
After a closed-door meeting with members of the Incident Response Team, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Sunday evening said Canada is restricting travel from the U.K. for 72 hours in an effort to keep a contagious new strain of the virus that causes COVID-19 out of Canada.
He added that passengers who arrived in Canada from the U.K. on Sunday will be subject to secondary screening and “enhanced measures.”
Those measures include increased scrutiny of quarantine plans, Health Canada said in a statement.
“The Government of Canada is closely monitoring the genetic variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 identified in the United Kingdom and is working with international partners, including the World Health Organization, to better understand this variant and its impacts,” the agency said.
It added that there have been no recorded cases of the new strain in Canada.
On Saturday, Canada surpassed 500,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as infections continued to surge while the vaccine rollout reached New Brunswick, the last province to launch its inoculation program.
The latest 100,000 cases racked up in just 15 days across the country, marking the shortest growth period since the pandemic was declared in March.
It took six months for Canada to register its first 100,000 cases of the virus, another four to reach 200,000, less than a month to hit 300,000 and 18 days to hit 400,000.
Meanwhile, an online survey shows the majority of Canadians report feeling optimistic about the new year in light of the COVID-19 vaccines.
A report commissioned by the Association for Canadian Studies and conducted by Leger says 70 per cent of those polled said they were somewhat optimistic about 2021, while 15 per cent reported feeling very optimistic.
Another 10 per cent said news of the vaccines left them feeling somewhat pessimistic about the new year, and five per cent said they felt very pessimistic.
INTERNATIONAL
Meanwhile, global coronavirus infections surpassed the 75 million mark on Saturday. There have been 18.65 million new cases in the past month, the highest reported for a 30-day period since the pandemic started.
U.S. health officials are monitoring the new strain of COVID-19 emerging in the United Kingdom, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on Sunday, adding that any mutation shows people must keep protecting themselves from the novel coronavirus while awaiting vaccination.
“Viruses mutate all the time,” Adams told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program. “If this is a mutation that is more contagious, then that just means that we need to be that much more vigilant while we wait to be vaccinated.”
The new strain is wreaking havoc on the U.K., accounting for 60 per cent of new infections in London in December. The country recorded 35,928 further confirmed cases on Sunday, around double the number from a week earlier.
The British government has said the strain has been circulating since September, but it wasn’t until the last week that there was enough evidence to declare that it has higher transmissibility than other circulating coronaviruses.
QUEBEC
Quebec reported 2,146 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the second day in a row it has set a record for the number of cases, and the third time it has surpassed 2,000 cases.
Quebec also registered 21 new deaths, for a total of 7,736 fatalities linked to the disease. The province says three of those deaths took place in the past 24 hours, while 18 occurred between Dec. 13 and Dec. 18.
Health officials say hospitalizations increased by five for a total of 1,010. Of those, 146 people are in intensive care — up four from the previous day.
Quebec has now reported 176,985 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.
