Liberal MNA rankles Legault camp with deconfinement tweet
The following are excerpts from our daily live coronavirus pandemic coverage:
A Radio-canada report about how the Coalition Avenir Québec government is doling out deconfinement news appears to have touched a nerve in Premier François Legault’s office on Friday.
The report suggests the government may have waited to loosen parts of the lockdown after they had been approved by public health officials.
Experts quoted suggested the delays may have been to allow Legault to spread out good news and to keep the government’s efforts from being drowned out by other news.
Ewan Sauves, spokesperson for Legault, took to Twitter twice Friday to attack a Liberal MNA for a tweet about the story.
Sauves accused MNA Christine St-pierre of “demagogy” and said she “should be ashamed” by what she wrote.
St-pierre’s tweet: “You could tell they were (handing out deconfinements) like candy to children who were ‘docile’ and ‘obedient.’ What does the public health department think?”
You could tell they were (handing out deconfinements) like candy to children who were ‘docile’ and ‘obedient.’
Quebec has recorded 167 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 54,550, the provincial government said Friday.
Thirty-five new deaths were reported. The death toll is now 5,375.
The number of hospitalizations stands at 574, a decrease of 63.
Of those in hospital, 62 are in intensive care, a drop of three.
Unlike Quebec, where the return to elementary and high school classrooms will be mandatory in the fall, Ontario on Friday announced that in-person learning will be optional in the next school year. “If you don’t feel comfortable, if you’re worried about your child returning to school, we’ll keep at-home learning available for your child,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Quebec’s public health institute has tracked the number of deaths in the province and compared its death rate with those of 10 countries.
After surpassing several countries in recent weeks, Quebec topped the United Kingdom on Friday to reach the top spot.
Quebec’s death toll is now the highest of the countries being monitored.
The province has recorded 625 deaths per one million population.
The other countries: United Kingdom (621), Spain (580), Italy (570), France (453), United States (362), Switzerland (226), Canada, including Quebec (219), Portugal (149), Germany (107), China (3).
The Institut national de santé publique du Québec suggests “international comparisons should be interpreted with caution since the method of recording deaths may differ between countries.”
Hoping to make physical-distancing easier and also help struggling retailers, the city of Montreal says a 1.5-kilometre stretch of Ste-catherine St. will be closed to cars on weekends this summer, beginning Saturday. The pedestrian-only zone will run between Metcalfe and Lambert-closse Sts. It will be a weekend pedestrian domain until Sept. 7.
Statistics Canada has quantified just how painful the pandemic has been for retailers.
Quebec retail sales fell by 28 per cent in April, compared with the previous month, Statistics Canada reported today.
That was the second-biggest drop after Ontario (33 per cent).
The two provinces were the hardest hit by the pandemic.
As for metropolitan areas, Montreal saw a 31-per-cent decline, compared with 36 per cent in Toronto.
The sale of clothing took the biggest hit across the country, dropping 85 per cent, with the sporting-goods, hobby, book and music category falling by 67 per cent, and car and car parts dropping by 64 per cent February and April.