3 people in Waterloo ticketed for hosting groups larger than 5 during lockdown

Three people in Waterloo have been ticketed for hosting events where more than five people who are not members of their immediate household were at their homes.

Region of Waterloo CAO Mike Murray says thethree tickets were issued over the past week by Waterloo bylaw officials to the homeowner or renter. Each ticket carries a $750 fine.

Bylaw officers throughout the region have now issued 15tickets under the province's state of emergency orders. Other tickets have been issued for groups gathering in public in Cambridge and a basketball player was ticketed after refusing to leave a Kitchener basketball court when the courtswere closed. Some businesses have also been ticketed for being open when they were not considered essential.

Murray says everyone needs to follow the public health guidelines and the provincial order not to gather.

"We at a precarious time in the response," Murray said during a regional media briefing on Wednesday. "The fact that the province extended the emergency orders to June 9 that's sending a pretty clear message that these orders are still in effect and they're still enforceable."

The news of the three tickets comes days after hundreds of people gathered at a Toronto park on Saturday.

'Please don't do that'

Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the region's acting medical officer of health, said people should not socialize in groups with people outside of their immediate household members.

"Please don't do that," she said of public or private gatherings.

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"We know that the most likely way for people to become infected is through close contact with others such as family and friends. So when people do this, they increase their risks," Wang said.

"Not only do they increase the risks for themselves, they increase the risks of passing the infection on to those that they are closest to."

Wang says people can get outside, get exercise, enjoy the fresh air, but people need to maintain a physical distance of at least two metres from others.