‘WE CAN’T LET OUR GUARD DOWN’
First COVID wave not over, Arruda warns
As Quebec’s health-care sector battens down the hatches ahead of a probable second wave of COVID -19, public health director Dr. Horacio Arruda issued a stern warning Friday: the first wave isn’t over.
There were 89 new transmissions of the virus reported Friday, and the latest statistics show a rise in young people contracting COVID-19. People aged 20 to 29 represent only 12.5 per cent of Quebec’s population, but have made up 24.7 per cent of new cases in Montreal over the past three weeks. With social distancing measures loosened, each new patient may have been in contact with far more people than when most Quebecers were quarantined in their homes.
“Yes, things are much better, but we must not let our guard down. Quite the opposite,” Arruda said at a news conference in Longueuil. “As we’ve seen (with the recent resurgence) in the United States, there are consequences to not following public health directives.
“We must learn to live with the virus. To leave our homes but to do it in a safe way, by observing social distancing and wearing face coverings.”
With bars and restaurants beginning to reopen, there will continue to be new cases and interactions that probably breach physical distancing protocols, Arruda said.
Perhaps another indicator that people are being less cautious: sexually transmitted infections are on the rise in some Quebec regions, according to one health official.
“We’ve seen a rise in people contracting sexually transmitted diseases in recent weeks and that could mean that, yes, people aren’t keeping two-metres distance from each other,” said Dr. Julie Loslier, the Montérégie region’s director of public health.
“It’s also possible people were waiting for the pandemic to die down before getting tested. It’s possible it’s a bit of both.”
Loslier said it’s important for Quebecers to realize the coronavirus is still active and just as contagious as it was at the height of the pandemic, which has killed 5,560 people in the province.
Seven COVID -19-related deaths from the previous 24-hour period were reported Friday. Another 12 deaths that occurred prior to June 25 were also recorded.
Ahead of a potential second wave, Arruda says Quebec will be far more prepared having learned valuable lessons about COVID -19.
Asked if the death toll in longterm care centres could have been prevented, he took a moment to gather his thoughts.
“Could it have been avoided? Probably,” he said. “There were standards in place, but were they applied? I don’t know. I think one of the great problems was human resources. There was already a crisis in human resources before the pandemic.
“If you’re tired and you’re overworked, it’s a lot easier to make mistakes, to forget to wash your hands or dispose of an old mask.”
Arruda conceded that healthcare personnel became vectors of the disease, taking it from one facility to the next.
Moving forward, the centres will need more personnel, more training, a designated employee whose job it is to monitor the virus, an interdisciplinary response team of doctors, nurses and orderlies, as well as strict observance of safety protocols, according to Arruda.
Last month, the province launched a campaign to hire 10,000 new orderlies in long-term care facilities by December.
As for what we know about a possible second wave, Arruda said the virus could be mutating, that strains coming from different parts of the world might have different characteristics.
“Coronaviruses mutate, some say every 10 days, but without changing the impact of the virus,” he said. “It’s a relatively stable virus compared to others . ... The virus adapts itself to the human and you have to think of it as a machine that copies itself and there are little changes, little mistakes in those copies ... so we’re studying it to see how it adapts.
“For now we must remain vigilant and we must be prepared for a second wave. I’ll be the first to say I’m delighted if all these preparations are for naught.”
Things are much better, but we must not let our guard down. As we’ve seen in the (U.S.), there are consequences to not following public health directives.