Bar owners caught off guard by green light
Establishments can open but some need time to prepare for customers
Public health officials on Thursday green-lit the opening of almost all sectors of the Quebec economy, allowing businesses like bars, water parks, spas and casinos to reopen.
The sweeping announcement excluded only large festivals, overnight summer camps and combat sports.
Horacio Arruda, the director of public health, said Thursday’s announcement was a step toward a “new normal” in Quebec society. The virus is still present, he said, despite indicators showing that the pandemic is easing in the province. All businesses will have to ensure people stay two metres apart, encourage them to wear masks and enforce sanitary measures.
“It’s a conditional deconfinement,” Arruda said. “I’m asking people to keep following these guidelines, because if not we will pay a heavy price. We will pay in the fall or perhaps even before that.”
The improving picture of the pandemic had led officials to steadily relax gathering rules and allow the reopening of businesses in stages. But on Thursday, Arruda gave the OK for almost everything to open.
It was a shock to many. As soon as Arruda delivered the news of the imminent opening, the telephone at Bar Chez Paul in Pierrefonds began ringing off the hook. People wanted to know when it would reopen and if they could come for a beer that very evening, said co-owner Benoit Forget. He told the callers: “No.” The beer was not cold; the bar was not ready.
“We got absolutely no headsup,” he said, explaining it will take a few days to prepare the bar for customers. Many bar owners have expressed their frustration that restaurants were able to open in Montreal on Monday while they were left out.
“I didn’t understand why we were the last ones on earth not able to open,” Forget said. “Everything open. Not the bars.”
Arruda said bars will have to follow similar measures to the ones in place at restaurants. People will have to sit two metres apart if they are from different households, there will be no standing around nursing drinks, and close-quarters dancing will be prohibited.
He said Quebec’s workplace safety authority, the CNESST, will be in charge of producing new guidelines for businesses to follow. The CNESST did not respond to a Montreal Gazette request asking if guidelines had yet been developed for the sectors that reopened Thursday.
Ultimately, Arruda said, the requirements boil down to staying two metres apart, wearing masks and washing your hands. Obeying the guidelines will save lives and prevent another wave of cases. Failure to follow them will lead to reconfinement. If there is a rise in the number of cases, “probably we will reconfine certain sectors,” Arruda said. “It will depend on the epidemiology.”
As people have begun to frequent restaurants again and gather inside in groups, some have flouted public health guidelines. Arruda said he was worried that people were feeling more relaxed.
“It’s true, it’s the summer, it’s nice out,” he said. “But for me, it’s excessively important if we want to avoid this wave restarting, or a second wave, that all Quebecers respect the two-metre distance.”
Health officials expected an increase in COVID -19 cases as businesses began to reopen as early as April, when some construction work was allowed to resume. But no such spike has occurred, in part because of increasingly efficient contact tracing, according to Dr. Mylène Drouin, director of the Montreal public health authority.
Contact tracing will continue to be key over the course of the summer, she said. If someone who catches the virus has followed the public health guidelines, it makes the contact tracer’s job easier. “If everyone respects the two metres, covers their faces, I think we are going to reduce the number of contacts for each case,” she said, “and that’s how we’re going to get through the summer and gain some liberty.”
The number of new cases in Quebec overall continues to drop, but testing has, too. The province is testing fewer than 10,000 people each day — well short of its earlier announced goal of 14,000 tests per day.
Quebec reported 142 new cases on Thursday, breaking a nearly weeklong succession of days when the reported daily figure was below 100.
Fewer people are dying of COVID-19 each day compared with the pandemic’s peak in April and early May. Officials counted seven new deaths on Thursday, bringing the provincial total of lives lost to the virus to 5,448.