Despite the concerns, Prime Minister François Legault again insisted that allowing students to return to classrooms this week represents a “minimal risk” for children and teachers, and that the epidemiological situation allows it.
“What we have seen for a week is that we have managed to curb the increase,” he said during his appearance on the show. Everybody talks about it Sunday. The next few weeks “will continue to be very difficult”, he said, but according to him there is no longer an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases and Quebec has “reached a plateau”, “in the top of the peak”.
Less than 100 new hospitalizations will be announced on Monday, he said, a sign according to him that “it’s still positive when you compare” and that for a week, “it’s improving”. On Sunday, Quebec recorded 105 additional hospitalizations and 3,300 people with COVID-19 are currently hospitalized.
The balance of inconvenience therefore ensures that opening the classrooms is a good decision, believes the Prime Minister. He adds that the impacts of the virus are minimal on the students, who will wear the mask, and that the teachers had faster access to a third dose than the rest of the population.
The Prime Minister also said that 600,000 adults are still not vaccinated in the province, which represents a “great challenge”. He still intends to go ahead with a health contribution for the non-vaccinated and his bill will be tabled in early February.
He recalled that the vaccine passport will be extended to supermarkets from January 24. Asked why the employees of these same supermarkets will not be forced to vaccinate, François Legault indicated that government lawyers said that this was not a possible avenue. “To tell a person who works at the SAQ or in a supermarket that they no longer have the right to work, it is currently legally impossible to force them,” he said, adding that the lawyers found “limited” to impose it on employees of the health network.