Just when we thought our lockdown was being lifted.

Small family-owned and micro businesses in the community are bracing for a second hit as the COVID-19 lockdown now in place in Toronto and Peel Region will be extended for more days of hardship and suffering by some.

A similar lockdown will also start in Hamilton on Monday to avert a spread of the pandemic.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the extended lockdown in Toronto and Peel Region will continue. It was set to expire on December 21.

The government said the lockdown in Toronto will be re-assessed on January 4.

“In the areas that are locked down right now that are expiring on Monday, I can tell you they won’t be expiring,” he told reporters at Queen’s Park on December 18. “We are going to continue on with the lockdowns within those regions and will have additional information on Monday for the balance of the province.”

Most non-essential businesses are forced to close when an area goes into lockdown.

Merchants in Alderwood, Long Branch, New Toronto and Mimico say they have been hit hard and are struggling to survive.

Many bars and restaurants are down to the last of their savings or living on credit as they try to survive on pick-up and take out only orders.

Also closed for most of the money-earning Christmas and New Year’s Day festive season are salons, spas, barber shops, hairdressers, massage and many other clubs.

Upset Mimico store owner Chirag Patel, of A-1 Discount, at 2412 Lake Shore Blvd. W., says he has had to lay off staff and reduce hours of others at his store to survive.

“Business has gone right down,” Patel laments. “It is Christmas and usually we have to bring in more staff to help with the customers. There are usually line ups, but there are none this year.”

He says this is the worst that he has experienced in his more than 20-years of operating the family-owned business.

Patel has tacked up a sign on the outside of his store to show city leaders the struggles that he and other small businesses are facing to survive.

The news of more lockdowns comes a day after Ontario recorded the most cases of COVID-19 in a single day, with more than 2,400 infections logged and hospitalizations for the disease continue to climb.

There are now 877 patients in hospital with COVID-19, with 261 patients being treated in intensive care. This sparked a call from the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) for “immediate action” to curb the spread of infection.

Further restrictions by Ford to deal with the virus are slated for Monday