With a strong wave due to the Delta variant and already 95 cases linked to Omicron, Montreal Public Health admits that it will probably be necessary to avoid the end of year celebrations in the metropolis. However, she says she is doing everything to “slow down and delay” the progression of the Omicron variant in the metropolis.
“The situation is shaking us up, destabilizing us and will require a lot of agility from us. We may have to collectively review the plans we had in mind for the Holidays, ”explained the regional director of public health, Dr.D Mylène Drouin, at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
She maintains that the main objective of her teams is to “slow down and delay the moment when the Omicron variant takes the place of the Delta variant”. “If the Omicron wins, we want to prevent the wave from being too fast, too high. Superpropagation events must be avoided. We know that tracing will not be enough. We must expect that there will be population-based measures to reduce the impact of this wave, ”insisted the DD Drouin.
“We didn’t want to be here two weeks before Christmas. Yesterday, we had more than 844 cases, compared to the day before. That’s almost an 80-90% increase. And we expect this increase to continue ajd and in the next few days, ”the regional director insisted.
For her part, the president and director general of the CIUSSS-Center-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, Sonia Bélanger, admitted that the Montreal health network will be “under tension” as Christmas approaches. To set an example, his group also claims to have asked its staff “to avoid gatherings”. “We have also decided to cancel all of our holiday activities in healthcare establishments. We asked to strengthen teleworking in sectors where it is possible, ”assured Mr.me Bélanger.
In Quebec, Prime Minister François Legault has also indicated that he will no longer close the door to a revision of health instructions for the Holidays, if the projections in terms of hospitalizations were to darken. He warned that “nothing should be ruled out for the next few days”, given the sharp rise in the number of COVID-19 cases and the threat of the Omicron variant. On Tuesday, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, asked employers to favor teleworking until further notice.
At the provincial level, Quebec officially rose above the symbolic threshold of 300 hospitalizations on Wednesday, while the strong upward trend of COVID-19 continued with 2,386 new cases and four additional deaths.
The Trudeau government is now recommending that Canadians avoid all non-essential travel abroad. The government wants to prevent a resurgence of COVID-19 cases from overloading the health care system across the country.