Weary provinces look for rays of hope

MONTREAL • Some provincial authorities saw encouraging signs in the fight against COVID-19 on Monday, even as experts warned that it's too soon to draw conclusions from the data and urged Canadians not to relax their efforts to slow the spread of the virus.

Officials in both Quebec and Manitoba noted that case numbers have dropped slightly in recent days and suggested that their populations' efforts to control the virus could be paying off.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief public health officer, said case numbers in his province appeared to be dipping.

“We're definitely not out of the woods,” he told a news conference as the province reported 118 cases.

Meanwhile, Quebec reported 1,634 new COVID-19 cases, which included about 200 from the previous day that weren't noted because of a delay.

The province had broken the 3,000-case mark in early January and has a seven-day rolling average of more than 1,900 cases a day.

Health Minister Christian Dubé noted on Twitter that the Quebec City region in particular had seen a decline in the number of new infections recently, which he saw as a sign that “the sacrifices that we're asking of Quebecers are bearing fruit.” However, he asked Quebecers to continue their efforts in order to reduce the number of hospitalizations, which rose Monday after three straight days of decline.

Université de Montréal public health professor Benoît Massé said it will take another week or two to know whether the downward trend will be sustained and to gauge the impact of the recently imposed curfew.

Ontario also reported its lowest number of COVID-19 cases since early January, with 2,578 new infections, but the province completed a little more than 40,000 tests Sunday, compared with more than 60,000 the day before.

The news was less positive in New Brunswick, where the Edmundston region entered the province's highest pandemic-alert level, ushering in new restrictions on businesses in the region after a record-breaking number of new cases on Sunday.

The province reported 26 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday after Sunday's alltime high of 36.