(Québec) À dix jours de Noël, le directeur national de santé publique, le Dr Luc Boileau prévient que ceux qui attrapent la COVID-19 à compter de maintenant ne devraient pas participer au réveillon de Noël puisque la contagiosité dure 10 jours. On s’abstient par ailleurs si on souffre de symptômes grippaux liés à d’autres virus respiratoires.
La Santé publique a fait le point mercredi sur la transmission de virus respiratoires au Québec. Le Dr Luc Boileau en appelle à la plus grande des prudences alors que plusieurs virus, comme celui de l’influenza, circulent encore beaucoup. La situation dans les hôpitaux, notamment les urgences, demeure sous grande pression en raison de la circulation de ces virus.
« Nous sommes en plein cœur d’une saison grippale, nous avons des indices que le pic [de la courbe] may have been reached, but the positivity rate remains at 25%, in our jargon, that means it is high, ”explained the Dr Boileau at a press conference in Quebec. “The virus that remains the most worrying despite everything is COVID-19,” he added.
Public Health also anticipates an increase in cases of COVID-19 with holiday gatherings. “It will go up, there is almost no doubt,” he said. It targets in particular the group of over 60s, about 60% of whom have not yet had the disease.
In this context, Public Health calls for “the greatest caution” while Quebecers will multiply the gatherings. “If you are sick, you stay at home, you don’t go to a party “, hammered the Dr Boileau, admitting that some Quebecers are less attentive after more than two years of the pandemic. He recalls that there is a form of “collective” responsibility to protect oneself.
Public Health recommends that anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms refrain from participating in Christmas celebrations. For COVID specifically, if a person contracts it from now on, they should not go to the family eve since they are contagious for ten days, and this, symptoms or not, explained the Dr Boileau.
“It’s flat, but that’s how it is,” summed up the Dr Boileau. The national director of public health also recommends testing yourself a few times to make sure it is not COVID. In the case of a virus other than COVID, on the other hand, a person could go to a gathering only if the symptoms have disappeared.