Celebrate holidays but don’t gather, Plante says

Montreal police won’t be snooping at your holiday table to make sure you have no visitors this Easter or Passover.

But please respect the rules by only celebrating with people who live under your roof, Mayor Valérie Plante, health officials and police said Wednesday.

“Obviously, we are not going to ring doorbells at random,” assistant police chief Sophie Roy said at a press conference at Montreal city hall.

But that does not make it OK to gather with anyone outside of your immediate household, she said.

Montreal public health director Mylène Drouin said the vast majority of Montrealers have been respecting the rules on social distancing.

She urged them to keep up the good work this holiday week by only being with members of their own household.

“What I encourage is that during these festivities, you call family members or neighbours who are alone to see if they’re in need or just to have a chat because we know people are isolated,” Drouin said.

With COVID-19 cases expected to peak in Montreal in the coming days, Plante renewed the city’s state of emergency, declared on March 27, for another five days.

With the long weekend coming up, Plante announced that on top of park restrictions announced last weekend, access to Old Montreal and the Old Port is being limited.

Police reported a large number of people at those popular destinations last weekend, she noted.

This weekend, Montreal police will be posted at entry points to Old Montreal to ensure visitors from outside the immediate area do not enter.

Plante announced that a 2.7-kilometre safe walking corridor is being created on Mont-royal Ave. from Esplanade to Papineau Ave. to facilitate social distancing. Parking on one side of the street is being eliminated to create a 4.5-metre-wide pedestrian corridor.

That doesn’t mean people should go there to hang out: the measure is to make it easier for local residents to get groceries and other staples without getting too close to each other in the densely inhabited neighbourhood, she said.

The Société de développement de l’avenue du Mont-royal, representing local merchants, welcomed the measure.

The City of Westmount has introduced similar measures to widen the space for pedestrians on some streets. On Wednesday, it asked pedestrians and runners to go in one direction on sidewalks, to avoid people encountering each other. On two-way streets, pedestrians on each side of the street should go in the same direction as vehicle traffic. On one-way streets, southbound pedestrians should use the west sidewalk, while northbound ones should use the east one.

Montreal is not considering implementing such a measure for the time being, Drouin said.

Plante also confirmed that the Bixi season will start next Wednesday. Some have criticized the move, saying the bike rentals could pose a health risk, but the mayor said it would help alleviate crowding on public transit.