Quebec has peaked in the rise in COVID-19 cases and as a result, students will return to school as planned next Monday. The curfew will be lifted that same day and the vaccine passport will be extended to large areas.
Posted at 2:55 p.m.
Updated at 4:45 p.m.
The return to schools is “safe”, assured the national director of public health, Luc Boileau. COVID-19 outbreaks in schools are a reflection of community contagion and “there is no evidence” that schools are accentuating them, he explained, which does not exclude that outbreaks could nevertheless occur in schools.
“Children are not at great risk of developing a serious infection that will lead to hospitalization,” said Dr.r Boileau, who recalls that the “very large majority” of teachers have received two doses of vaccine, if not three. He also assured that no direction was given to him on one orientation or another. “I rather boarded where the train was at,” he noted, saying he was very comfortable with his first recommendations, including that on the reopening of schools.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
The National Director of Public Health, Dr.r Luc Boileau.
It is “likely” to believe that a good part of the children have already been infected with COVID-19, but collective immunity for children “is not an objective”, also explained the national director of public health. .
N95 masks will not be distributed to staff at all schools. The national director of public health felt that the N95, in the context of schools or daycares, did not provide “a safer living environment”.
“There’s no reason to believe there would be any benefit to using this,” said Dr.r Boileau. They will be provided to staff in specialized classes, because the context is similar to that in a hospital environment.
If there is a shortage of staff in the schools, the Minister of Education has confirmed that parents could, as a last resort, be called upon to help, but refuses to speak of “shedding”. “We are not going to the term load shedding in our schools. I don’t think that’s an appropriate term,” said Jean-François Roberge.
A stabilization of the number of cases
From the outset, Premier François Legault explained that the number of cases is stabilizing in Quebec. “Despite the fact that we do not do the tests in the same way, we have confirmation from the experts that the number of infections, the number of cases is stabilizing. According to experts, we reached a peak a few days ago, ”said the Prime Minister.
“That means that the measures we put in place at the end of December, which were tough, have brought results,” continued Mr. Legault.
Despite everything, the “peak is very high” and as a result, the next weekend could be “the hardest in the health network”, warned the Prime Minister.
Faced with the load shedding which has an impact on several interventions in hospitals, the Minister of Health Christian Dubé called for the “courage” of people who are waiting for surgery, for example for cancer. “We are not there yet”, however assured Christian Dubé about level 5 of load shedding in Quebec hospitals. If health workers return to work “as we think they will return, both in hospitals and CHSLDs, that will make a difference,” he added.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé.
In a few days, the health network went from 20,000 absentees to 15,000 employees, said the minister. “It’s the best proof that people who got sick over the holidays are starting to come back. ”
Without vaccination, Quebec would have recorded nearly 900 hospitalizations per day and more than 3,000 deaths last week, also assessed the new national director of public health, Luc Boileau.
François Legault also returned to the health contribution that we plan to impose on people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19. The objective is not to “hurt people who are in a bad way”, assured the Prime Minister, citing in particular the homeless or people who have mental health problems. “What we are aiming for is to tell people who choose not to be vaccinated: there is a price to pay,” said François Legault. It is also “an incentive to protect them themselves,” he continued.
The Prime Minister, however, acknowledged that “it will be necessary to look at all the legal part” and see “who are the people who will be excluded”. He maintained that it will be important to debate it in the National Assembly with all the opposition. The bill is currently being drafted and a bill will eventually be tabled.