About twenty people were in contact with a case of COVID-19 during the convocation of the faculty of pharmacy at the University of Montreal, last Friday. The event brought together more than a thousand people at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, but the university says that no transmission took place after the day.
Canceled for more than a year and a half due to the pandemic, convictions have resumed at several universities in recent weeks. At Laval University, for example, they took place at the end of November.
It was last week that the University of Montreal held its at the Palais des congrès. Following the event bringing together 350 pharmacy graduates and their 850 guests, the university had to send an email to “twenty” people who had been in contact with someone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 . They were told to watch for symptoms.
Since then, no other case has been brought to the attention of the University of Montreal. “There is absolutely nothing that tells us or that indicates to Public Health that there was transmission during this event,” said Geneviève O’Meara, spokesperson for the University of Montreal.
The day before the event, the province reported nearly 2,400 new cases of COVID-19.
As a result, increased health measures were put in place for the two ceremonies on that Friday, explains the University of Montreal. In addition to wearing the mask, there was distancing in the room.
For all convictions, vaccination passports were required. That of the faculty of medicine, on December 14, brought together around 600 graduates and 1,500 guests. That day, faced with the rise of the Omicron variant in Ontario, Premier François Legault declared: “We can think that it will come here. “
Quebec’s National Institute of Public Health reported on Tuesday that it is now dominant in the province.
Outbreaks on the rise in Montreal
To justify the holding of its events bringing together several hundred guests, the University of Montreal calls for “putting into perspective what was happening” just a few days ago.
Several events bringing together more than a thousand people took place last week in the metropolis. One day before the graduation ceremony for pharmacy graduates, on December 16, Louis-Jean Cormier gave a concert in front of 2,000 people at MTELUS. On December 17, a boxing gala, for which the spectator limit had been set at 5,000, took place at the Bell Center after having obtained the approval of the Public Health of Montreal.
The Direction régionale de santé publique de Montréal indicates that as of December 21, there were 347 outbreaks of COVID-19 in Montreal. There were less than 200 last week.
“There are some in all the sectors that we are monitoring,” said his spokesperson, Jean-Nicolas Aubé.
Of these, 126 outbreaks occurred in elementary schools, seven in secondary or vocational schools, and one in academia. Public Health does not disclose the locations of these outbreaks.
Jean-Nicolas Aubé further recalls that “it is not because there is an event that there is necessarily an outbreak”. Epidemiological investigations will give the answers in a few days, he said.