COVID-19 is spreading at lightning speed in Gaspésie and the Magdalen Islands. The region sits at the top of the number of active cases per 100,000 inhabitants in Quebec. The regional director of public health, Dr.r Yv Bonnier-Viger, considers that he is ” quite likely » that the BA.2 variant is responsible for the “significant increase” in infections.
The Omicron wave hit Gaspésie and the Magdalen Islands later and less hard this winter. “We had not had many cases, explains the Dr Yv Bonnier-Viger. We had a big set afterwards. It is possible that the BA.2 is offered fertile ground. As it is already much more contagious than BA.1, that could explain this kind of explosion of cases. »
A “plausible” hypothesis according to him, but which cannot be confirmed for the moment.
The Quebec Public Health Laboratory is sequencing cases in the province. “What we were told is that we don’t have the capacity — in any case, we hadn’t done it yet — to be able to tell us by region if that was it. [le BA.2] “, indicates the Dr Bonnier Viger.
About ten days ago, Public Health reported that more than 10% of COVID-19 cases in Quebec were now associated with BA.2.
The increase in cases is particularly significant in the MRC du Rocher-Percé and the Îles de la Madeleine. Their rates of active cases per 100,000 inhabitants are respectively 1,327 and 1,287.8, behind that of the MRC de la Minganie (1831), on the North Shore, the worst score in Quebec.
Nevertheless, the Dr Bonnier-Viger is “not too worried”. “Our hospitalizations are not increasing too much, he specifies. And we don’t have more people in intensive care than we used to. This trend is also seen across the province, which is currently seeing “a slight increase” in COVID-19 cases, he notes.
It remains that in the context, the Dr Bonnier-Viger judges that it “would not be a good idea” to now lift the obligation to wear a mask. “I don’t think there is a decision that needs to be made before mid-April,” he said. Anyway, we will see how the virus will evolve in that time. »
To limit the transmission of the virus, the regional director of public health invites his fellow citizens to wear a mask indoors, to practice distancing and hand washing, as well as to obtain their missing doses of vaccines.
In Gaspésie and the Magdalen Islands, 85.7% of people aged 5 and over are adequately vaccinated, according to the most recent data from the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec.