(Quebec) Quebec is preparing to give the green light to the resumption of sports activities for young people on January 31, the day when it also plans to allow the reopening of dining rooms in restaurants and limited gatherings in homes.
Updated at 0:06
According to ongoing discussions at Public Health, two family bubbles would be allowed to meet at the restaurant table. This authorization would extend to home gatherings. A family bubble could thus welcome another at home.
Civil and extracurricular sports, reserved for young people, will be able to resume on January 31. Over the past few days, the government has been under a lot of pressure – including internally – to allow young people to return to their sporting activities, a source of motivation for many.
Another relaxation: places of worship could also reopen at the end of the month.
However, no date has been circulated for the reopening of performance halls, bars and cinemas. A deconfinement sequence could however be unveiled in order to offer some predictability to the sectors concerned. We would fix the order in which the health instructions would be lightened.
Decreasing hospitalizations
Quebec begins to loosen the noose of containment when hospitalizations begin to decline. He is hopeful that the decline will continue over the next few days. On Sunday, 12 fewer COVID-19-related hospitalizations were reported, but 33 more deaths.
A total of 3,283 people with COVID-19 are hospitalized in Quebec. Currently, 272 patients are in intensive care, 2 people less than on Saturday.
The 33 new deaths bring the daily average to 69, a 32% increase over one week. We now deplore 12,799 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its appearance in Quebec.
There are also 5,141 new cases of COVID-19. Note, however, that the number of cases no longer represents a reliable indicator of the evolution of the pandemic in Quebec, because access to PCR tests is limited to certain groups, including health care workers.
The average of new cases for the last 7 days stands at 5,697, a drop of more than 29.4% compared to the previous Sunday.
The number of active outbreaks fell slightly from 1625 to 1623.
A total of 34,971 scans were performed on January 21. The positivity rate fell by 1.1 percentage points to 10.5%.
No less than 75,299 doses of vaccine have been administered in the past 24 hours, including 3,755 first doses and 53,800 booster doses.
The proportion of people aged 5 and over who received a first dose is still around 90%; 83% of these received a second dose and approximately 39% received a booster dose.
Nearly 3,800 hospitalizations in Ontario
For its part, Ontario has reported that 3,797 patients are now hospitalized due to COVID-19 and that 604 people are in intensive care.
This is a drop from the previous day, when the province recorded 4,026 hospitalizations. In intensive care, there were 600 patients.
Authorities say the figures do not represent the full extent of hospitalizations, as more than 10% of hospitals do not provide weekend updates.
Ontario Public Health also reports 57 new deaths related to COVID-19.
As for the number of new cases, it stands at 5,833. Ontario, however, indicates that the number of new infections is probably higher due to more restricted access to screening tests.
A total of 371 long-term care settings have an active outbreak, down from 368 the day before.
On January 31, Ontario will reopen restaurant dining rooms, gyms and cinemas by limiting their capacity, while increasing the number of people allowed in home gatherings.
With Pierre-André Normandin, The Press, and The Canadian Press