DIFFERENT APPROACHES
Quebec and Ontario chart paths to post-coronavirus normalcy //
The country’s two largest provinces, with about 80 per cent of Canada’s known cases of COVID-19, were taking different approaches to returning to normalcy amid federal projections on Tuesday that thousands more people would likely contract COVID-19 and hundreds more could die in the coming week.
Quebec, which has been hardest hit, reported 83 new fatal cases for a total of 1,682. However, Premier François Legault said although deaths were rising in long-term-care homes, they were largely stable elsewhere. As a result, Legault said stores outside the Montreal region could start reopening on Monday and in the city a week later. Primary schools and daycares are also to reopen starting May 11.
Ontario, on the other hand, has given no dates or schedule for lifting COVID-19 restrictions, other than that schools will stay closed until at least the end of May. Premier Doug Ford has been adamant reopening depends on getting the virus spread under firm control.
“Let me be crystal clear: As long as this virus remains a threat to Ontario, we will continue to take every precaution necessary,” Ford said this week.
In its latest report, Ontario snapped a three-day string of declining new cases as another 59 more people died. The province was approaching 1,000 deaths. As of Tuesday, the province had reported 15,381 cases of COVID-19, including 951 deaths and 8,964 resolved cases.
The world has now seen more than three million cases of COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus, with around 215,000 related deaths. Canada passed the 50,000 mark for known cases on Tuesday, more than 2,800 of them have been fatal.
Latest data indicate Canada’s case rate is doubling every 16 days rather than three to five days seen about three weeks ago. Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s top public health officer, said outbreaks in long-termcare and senior homes have driven the epidemic and were responsible for the vast majority of deaths.
While adults over the age of 60 accounted for 95 per cent of the more than 2,700 deaths, Tam warned no one was immune.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said caution remained the watchword when lifting restrictions that have devastated the economy.
“The measures we’ve taken so far are working,” Trudeau said at his daily briefing. “(But) if we lift measures too quickly, we might lose the progress we’ve made.”
As provinces announced plans for getting on the road to normalcy, the government released its framework for easing up on the restrictions. However, a co-ordinated and consistent approach was imperative, Trudeau added.
Getting the country moving, he said, won’t be an overnight process. Among other things, it will depend on capacity for testing and tracing infections, and ensuring that workers are safe on the job.
“Controlling transmission is key,” Trudeau said. “Restarting our economy will be gradual and careful, and will be guided by science.”