Faced with a “critical” epidemiological situation and “dazzling” community transmission, Quebec imposed a second blow of restrictions. Classes will be suspended at primary and secondary schools on Tuesday, while bars, casinos, cinemas and theaters will have to close their doors.
“The epidemiological situation is critical. The community transmission is dazzling, ”hammered the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, during a press scrum held virtually, at the beginning of the afternoon.
He recalled that the 4,571 cases identified on Monday are “the highest number of cases that we have ever announced”. “And unfortunately, it’s not improving. Hospitalizations are on the rise, intensive care too. Just yesterday, 49 people entered our hospitals, ”he said sorry.
Elementary and secondary schools will therefore close their doors from Monday evening at 5 p.m. until January 10. The same will apply to vocational training centers. All extracurricular activities are also canceled to reduce the risk of transmission. Daycare services in elementary schools will remain open, in particular to help out health personnel, as will childcare centers. Facilities where vaccination campaigns and the distribution of rapid tests were planned should also remain open. Higher education settings, such as CEGEPs and universities, may remain open if students have exams or internships.
We are 8 million in Quebec. And we are at war. It is war on the virus right now.
Christian Dubé, Minister of Health
Many school service centers do not resume classes until January 10, but schools that were to open before that date will be required to offer distance education after the holidays. School principals announced this to their teachers on Monday, who will only have a few hours to prepare for online education and ensure that all students will have what they need.
As for the Christmas gatherings, they remain for the moment at a maximum of ten, but another change is not excluded. “We take one day at a time. It’s so bad what’s happening. […] You have the right to meet your loved ones. It’s been a long time, but there are other measures depending on what we will learn this evening that could change. ”
New projections of hospitalizations must be presented to the Legault government on Monday. These models should be decisive for the future. “They probably won’t be encouraging, given how hard the variant will hit,” Dubé said.
At his side, the person in charge of vaccination, Daniel Paré, said he wanted to “increase our capacity in terms of third doses”, while closing the door to another expansion of the campaign for the moment. As of Monday noon, more than 188,000 people had made an appointment for their third dose, of which 148,000 are 65 years and over, a category that can make an appointment since Monday. “We must also protect our health workers”, justified the national director of public health, Dr Horacio Arruda, calling for vigilance in terms of comparison with other provinces. “Our goal is very much to protect our most vulnerable,” he added.
Closed bars, teleworking compulsory
From Monday 5 pm there will also be a “complete closure of bars, taverns and casinos”. Quebec deplores that the last-chance parties, which have been organized in the last few days in certain establishments, are completely “irresponsible”.
Ditto for cinemas and theaters. Restaurants will only be able to open their doors between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. “Teleworking is now compulsory”, also confirmed Mr. Dubé, indicating that sports performances – at the amateur or professional level – will also have to be held behind closed doors. Gyms will also have to close, as will spas, “with the exception of personal care”.
To control the large influx to screening clinics, Quebec is now also asking Quebecers who test positive for COVID-19 to isolate themselves, then to contact themselves other people with whom they may have been in contact. The measure would relieve the employees of these centers, who are currently overworked.
“Right now people want to use the tests and testing centers to make sure they don’t have it, even if they’re not symptomatic, to go to a rally. We can no longer do that, the approach we had no longer works, ”admitted Mr. Dubé on this subject.
Mr. Dubé also warned that load shedding will probably be necessary in the health network. To date, more than half of the capacity of beds reserved for COVID-19 in the Quebec network is already occupied. “We want to avoid emergency load shedding, so surgeries for example. We are not there at all, ”however assured Minister Dubé.