Montreal battling two coronavirus outbreaks
City reports first death; 31 medical workers are among 603 cases here
Thirty-one medical workers in Montreal have tested positive for COVID-19 and the metropolis is grappling with two outbreaks of the coronavirus, the city’s chief public health officer announced Wednesday.
Montreal reported 603 cases of COVID -19 on Wednesday, up from 439 on Tuesday. Of that number, an elderly Montrealer has died, Dr. Mylène Drouin confirmed at a late-afternoon news conference. This brings the total number of coronavirus fatalities in the province to seven.
Drouin observed that more than 42 per cent of cases are concentrated in the city ’s west end, mainly in Côte- St-luc and Côte-des-neiges. Downtown Montreal is next on the list with about 20 per cent of all cases.
“Nearly half of cases are travellers (or) contacts of travellers who had symptoms,” Drouin said.
“But we know that we have community transmission for some cases,” Drouin added.
“We have seen second- and third-generation transmission and for many cases we are not able to find a source.”
Forty Montreal residents have been hospitalized. Drouin said that seven patients are in intensive care, but the Jewish General Hospital revealed Wednesday morning that medical teams were treating 12 people in its intensive-care unit and there are concerns the ICU could soon reach its capacity.
The first of Montreal’s two outbreaks involves five infected seniors at the Notre-dame-de-lamerci residence on Gouin Blvd. in Montreal’s north end.
The second is at the Montreal Neurological Hospital on University St.
“Positive COVID-19 cases have been identified at the Montreal Neurological Hospital of the MUHC,” spokesperson Anneclaire Fournier told the Montreal Gazette.
“Admissions have been suspended until further notice and some activities have been redirected to the CHUM (Centre hospitalier de l’université de Montréal). We’re following the recommendations issued by Public Health.”
Despite the fact there is now community transmission of the highly contagious SARS-COV-2 virus, local authorities do not intend to expand COVID -19 testing to include everyone with flu-like symptoms, Drouin said. She suggested that as more resources become available, testing could be expanded.
“If I open the valve to test everyone,” Drouin explained, “I take all the capacity.
“Right now, we have opened some criteria to (include) healthcare workers, people who are hospitalized and that can have a pattern or symptoms that can be like COVID and, of course, the first responders. As soon as the capacity is bigger for testing, we will have to open the screening to the population with symptoms who have not travelled. But we’re not there.”
There are also no plans to impose additional social-distancing measures in the west end, Drouin said.
On Friday, Côte-st-luc Mayor Mitchell Brownstein urged the government to impose a quarantine on his entire municipality, but he later walked back that request to call for greater enforcement of social distancing.
“At this time, because the population interventions are quite aggressive in all of Quebec — we’ve had a lockdown since yesterday — I don’t think there is a necessity to do a specific intervention in a specific neighbourhood,” Drouin said.
Still, she called on families and seniors’ residences to make sure the elderly stay at home, given that Côte-st-luc has such a high percentage of people who are at least 65 years old — the most vulnerable demographic to develop pneumonia during the pandemic.
Drouin, who is director of the Montreal public health department, reiterated that people should also refrain from gathering in houses of worship. Weddings were held last week at synagogues in Westmount and Côte-st-luc, attracting hundreds of people in apparent violation of Premier François Legault’s prohibition on gatherings of more than 250 people.
Among other observations by the public health department:
Nearly 50 per cent of COVID -19 cases in Montreal have affected people who are over age 50 and 27 per cent are over 60.
Although there are few cases among those under 18, all age groups are at risk. Fifty-six per cent of all cases occur in men. The most common symptoms are a cough, fever and fatigue.
The public health department has carried out more than 600 COVID -19 investigations to identify sources and retrace contacts and is redoubling its efforts as the surge continues across Montreal.