Legault encouraged by lowest death toll in over a month
Legault gives million masks to Montreal, hasn’t ruled out making them mandatory
After a difficult week, Quebec Premier François Legault called a oneday drop in the number of deaths due to the coronavirus “encouraging.” “We can’t base it on one day, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen such a low number (of deaths),” Legault said Friday at a news conference at the Cinquième salle of Montreal’s Place des Arts.
The province recorded 41,420 cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, an increase of 696. A total of 3,401 people in Quebec have died from the virus, an increase of 50 in 24 hours, which was the lowest daily death toll since April 13. It was also the first time in three weeks that the 24hour increase in new cases dipped below 700, a positive sign, Legault said, especially considering the province has increased the number of daily tests for the virus in recent days. The number of hospitalized COVID -19 patients also decreased on Friday, a continuing trend.
Montreal and Laval remain the hot spots, accounting for 61 per cent of all cases, and 77 per cent of all deaths, with 21,038 cases and 4,516 cases, respectively. To date, Montreal has recorded 2,182 deaths and Laval has registered 437 deaths.
Sitting alongside Quebec public health director Horacio Arruda, Montreal public health director Mylène Drouin and Health Minister Danielle Mccann, Legault said the province is strongly encouraging people to wear masks when they ride on public transit or if they venture into one of the neighbourhoods where the virus is still raging out of control.
“Today, I’m announcing that I will be giving one million masks to the mayor of Montreal to be given out for free to Montrealers,” Legault said, adding that it’s up to the city to determine how to distribute the masks. “Of course, all people can make their own masks and I invite you to do so.”
The province will also be giving $6 million to the transit agencies of the Montreal region to enable them to acquire masks. While the province is strongly recommending people wear masks, Legault stopped short of making it a legal requirement, saying he would like to see people take their own initiative to wear them.
“But I have not ruled out making it a requirement (in the future),” Legault said.
Friday was the second day of Legault’s two-day tour of the Montreal region as he met with health authorities. The province has come under fire for not doing enough systematic tests of health-care workers, some of whom have likely spread the virus to their patients without showing any symptoms.
The province will continue to increase the number of tests in the region and will be testing all employees at the province’s long-term care homes, known as
CHSLDS, Mccann said.
However, union officials in Laval say the situation remains unchanged, with employees not being tested in a systematic way.
“We had to intervene when someone was working in a hot zone and they wanted to transfer her to the surgical ward of a hospital without testing her,” Marjolaine Aubé, the president of the union representing health-care workers, told the Montreal Gazette this week. “The capacity for testing in Laval is not fantastic.”
Legault said it’s not known if parents can expect a respite in the coming weeks, as the opening of daycare centres has been pushed back at least to the first week of June and a ruling has not yet been made on whether day camps and sleep-away camps will be permitted to go ahead.
Legault’s next news conference regarding the coronavirus will be held Monday in Quebec City.
It will be easier to travel within Quebec starting Monday, as the province announced the lifting of roadblocks barring access to the Gatineau and the Outaouais regions. Roadblocks in the Bassaint-laurent, Gaspésie, Charlevoix and Quebec City regions will also be lifted on Monday. Roadblocks barring access to the Côtenord region will be lifted on June 1.