The measures announced Thursday by the government should have been in place last week, believes Dr Yves Bolduc, former Minister of Health of Quebec.
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“That’s what I expected to be announced last week. I had also said that I was very disappointed that we had not done so before. […] Of course, these are measures that were made unavoidable and essential because contact must be reduced. And the way to do it is really to use methods like curfews and closing certain services, ”said the family doctor.
Even if some of these measures, such as closing restaurants, will have direct consequences for some people, it was necessary to act now, he said.
“Of course it’s very sad for restaurants […], but if we don’t do it now, it’ll be worse later. We are at the beginning and we know that it will last from a few weeks to several weeks. So the government had no choice, ”added the Dr Bolduc.
The latter is of the opinion that the fact that the government was slow to put in place these measures made the situation much worse than it could have been if Quebec had acted more quickly.
“It is important to take these measures because the network [de la santé] is imploding. […] All of this resulted in the government making a somewhat hasty decision yesterday, but it was the right decision to make. It was about time he announced it because if he had done it, it would have been even worse, ”hammered the Dr Yves Bolduc.
Currently, 12,000 employees are absent from the health network due to COVID-19, Prime Minister François Legault said during his press briefing on Thursday.
However, the worst of this wave is not yet upon us, according to Dr Bolduc.
“Omicron is very, very contagious. It would be 70 times more contagious than the Delta. So, even if people tell us that we are less sick, in some cases, in the end, the number means that there will be more of them in our establishments. The staff is already exhausted and then all measures must be taken to reduce contact, ”he analyzed.