Why isn’t the latest COVID bar data being released?
Officials haven’t explained why they couldn’t make the figures public
In another troubling sign of a lack of transparency during the pandemic, Montreal’s public health department has declined to provide the latest data on COVID-19 cases linked to bars after releasing statistics for most of the week.
Officials haven’t explained why they couldn’t make public the figures on Thursday and Friday other than to say the data has been submitted to the Quebec Health Ministry.
“I’m not the one who decides to publish the data,” said Jean Nicolas Aubé, a spokesperson for the public health department. “Every time we do a press conference it’s a decision that is taken by Santé publique in collaboration with the Quebec Health Ministry.”
“I’m not saying the data don’t exist,” Aubé added. “I don’t have anything for today. That’s all I can say.”
On Thursday, an official promised to “share” the bar data Friday. The decision to withhold the stats comes after authorities last Saturday urged anyone who’s been to a Montreal bar since July 1 to get tested for coronavirus.
That announcement triggered massive lineups for tests, with some people waiting as long as five hours outside the Hôtel-dieu screening clinic. On Saturday, Dr. David Kaiser disclosed that at least eight COVID -19 cases were traced to five bars.
Officials then released figures on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with Wednesday’s tally showing 15 new cases tied to bars and nightclubs. The cumulative total rose to 45. What’s more, the number of bars under investigation jumped to 14, and in six there were more than one case.
Yet on Friday, Premier François Legault declared he would keep bars open after saying earlier in the week he wouldn’t rule out closing them if they posted big increases.
“There are those who are attributing the increase in cases to people frequenting the bars,” Legault said. “It’s not the case. Public health has not suggested that we close bars.”
The premier noted that of the 141 new cases in the past 24 hours in Quebec, 97 involved health-care workers. He did not cite figures for bars.
Dr. Horacio Arruda, Quebec’s chief public health officer, held a separate news conference Friday in which he estimated that 35 per cent of current cases have been traced to outbreaks in families and less than five per cent in bars.
However, Arruda’s percentage for bars does not appear to reflect the reality in Montreal, at least for Wednesday. On that day, the 15 new bar cases represented 21 per cent of the 72 infections reported in the city. And given the high level of testing among mostly young Montrealers all week, it’s likely there have been additional bar-related cases since Wednesday.
The latest statistics for Montreal also raise doubts that the lion’s share of new cases arise from health-care workers. On Wednesday, the health department released its latest weekly report for the metropolis, revealing the vast majority of new cases were in the community outside of hospitals and eldercare homes.
On July 5, the director of the Montérégie public health department appealed to anyone who went to the Mile Public House on the evening of June 30 to get tested after an outbreak at the Brossard pub. Dr. Julie Loslier also attributed a spike in cases to two house parties.
Last Saturday, Kaiser spoke at length about cases in bars in the city, and on Tuesday, he discussed house parties, too. But neither Loslier nor Kaiser have referred to transmission of the virus among health workers.
It’s true that 84 health workers got infected at the Hôpital régional de Saint-jérôme, but that was more than a week ago. On Friday, the health authority in the Laurentians announced five hockey players who played in a tournament in Mirabel contracted the respiratory illness.
There’s no doubt health workers are contributing to many COVID -19 cases. But Montreal, the Montérégie, the Laurentians and the Laurentides — have all observed a resurgence in the past week that coincides with house parties and bar owners closing their establishments temporarily after some staff and customers caught the coronavirus.
During the peak of the first wave, the premier withheld for more than two weeks data on long-term centres, saying it had to be “cleaned up.” On Fête nationale, Quebec switched from daily to weekly updates before reversing that amid a public outcry.
On Friday night, the ministry responded to a Gazette request for a breakdown in cases, but included averages going back at least 10 days and not for the past 24 hours. With so much at stake, we owe it to the thousands who waited hours this week for tests to disclose the bar COVID -19 data.
A resurgence in the past week that coincides with house parties and bar owners closing their establishments.