The Ontario Hospitals Association is calling for a four week lockdown in areas with a COVID-19 infection rate of 40 per 100,000 population or higher.
That would include areas that are currently in the Red - Control level including Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph, Waterloo Region and London-Middlesex.
In a release Thursday, the OHA says it is necessary to protect the health and safety of people in the province and to ensure that hospitals do not face, what officials predict, would be a devastating surge in COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization.
A growing number of hospitals across the province are dealing with outbreaks and scheduled surgeries are being cancelled.
The province recorded more 2,000 new cases Wednesday and at the same time, hospitals are trying to catch-up on about 150,000 surgeries cancelled during the first wave of the pandemic.
The OHA is also asking the province to give priority to the reproduction rate and test positivity trends when deciding to implement more public health measures.
The board wants to make sure that schools are the last organization to close by asking businesses to make sacrifices like paid sick-leave and accommodating those that need to self-isolate whose jobs don't allow them to work from home.
Huron and Perth is currently under the Orange - Restrict level which is an incident rate of 25 to 39.9 per 100,000.
Bruce and Grey is currently under the Yellow - Prevent level which is an incident rate of 10 to 24.9 per 100,000.
--with files from Kate Stockmann
