While it remains difficult to give a precise “calendar” given the uncertainties still surrounding COVID-19 in Quebec, the acting national director of public health, Dr.r Luc Boileau, aims to announce new reductions “one week at a time”.
Posted at 3:23 p.m.
“I know everyone would like to have more predictability on relaxations. We are working solidly and as scientifically as possible on the sequence, ”explained Mr. Boileau during a press conference on Thursday, his first without François Legault and Christian Dubé.
He specified that it remains nevertheless “difficult” to give a precise timetable for the moment, “since it is necessary to follow the evolution of the situation and the vaccination rates”, two elements which according to him will be crucial for ” reopen even faster”.
“The objective would be to make this progress one week at a time”, he however clarified shortly after, adding that the government is “very open” to this and that it welcomes “very well” the general public health recommendations.
For now, the relief announced Tuesday by Quebec must take place in two stages. Restaurant dining rooms will first be able to reopen under certain conditions from January 31, and Quebecers will be able to gather in four people or two bubbles. Civilian and extracurricular sports reserved for young people will also resume on Monday, while performance halls and cinemas will restart a week later, on February 7.
“We can’t go very fast. We must continue to have a risk management approach, “still hammered Mr. Boileau, speaking of a progression “towards a normal life”, even of reaching an “endemic” stage.
In new models published on Thursday, the National Institute for Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS) also confirmed, as Minister Christian Dubé pointed out on Tuesday, to expect “a reduction in the number of beds occupied by COVID patients, to reach around 2,500” in the next two weeks.
Thus, the daily decline in hospitalizations is expected to be around 170 over the next few days, according to the government body. The latter also expects “a slight decrease in the number of intensive care beds occupied by COVID patients, to reach around 250” over the same period.
“We are projecting a decrease in the number of beds for COVID patients, but it is a decrease that is still modest. Despite everything, we remain above level 4 determined by the Ministry of Health, ”said the interim CEO of her former employer, the National Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS), Michèle de Guise. .