Barber shops, hair salons and all personal care services across Toronto will be shutting down as of Monday, Nov.23 at 12:01 a.m. thanks to rising COVID-19 case numbers, hospitalizations, deaths and per cent positivity rates throughout the city. 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford made the announcement that Toronto and Peel Region will be moving into the "Lockdown-Grey" stage of the government's new colour-coded framework during his daily presser at Queen's Park Friday afternoon.

Health Minister Christine Elliott then gave an overview of the closures and restrictions required in the lockdown phase, and they include shutting down patios, retail stores, personal care services, gyms, museums and more.

"With the numbers rising rapidly in certain regions, we have to make the tough, but necessary decisions now to protect our hospitals, long-term care and retirement homes, and every person in this province," said Ford in a statement.

"We cannot afford a province-wide lockdown, so we are taking preventative action today by moving Toronto and Peel into Lockdown level restrictions and other regions into higher levels of restrictions. We need to take decisive action to stop the spread of this deadly virus."

Some hair salon owners in the city were already bracing themselves for a potential lockdown this week after Ford hinted that strong measures were coming for Toronto and Peel, and many clients had been attempting to move their appointments up knowing they may not be able to get a trim or a dye job for the foreseeable future.

"As public health indicators continue to worsen in regions across the province, particularly in hotspots like Peel and Toronto, it is clear that more needs to be done to limit community spread of COVID-19," said Health Minister Christine Elliott.

"As we have seen around the world, lockdowns are a difficult but necessary step to stop the spread, safeguard the key services we rely on and protect our health system capacity. With the recent positive news on the development of a vaccine, there is a real hope that we can defeat this deadly virus, but for now we all must continue to follow public health advice and strictly adhere to the restrictions in place."