We all deserve a break, but there’s no rest from COVID
Two-week construction holiday a nice time to relax, but we can’t forget safety measures
Much of Quebec is on vacation for the next two weeks thanks to the annual construction holiday.
While everyone, from Premier François Legault to hard-hatwearing backhoe operators, deserves a little rest and relaxation this summer, there can be no break from COVID-19.
The pandemic is still very much with us, even if we’re trying to forget about it while staycationing around backyard pools, sitting on the dock at the cottage, or camping in Quebec’s pristine wilderness. In fact, the latest data suggests this is a very dangerous time to let our guard down — no matter how much we could use a breather.
There were 150 new cases of COVID -19 announced in Quebec Monday. While down slightly from the 166 confirmed cases
Sunday — the highest one-day total in a month — it still represents a significant increase from late June and early July, when new cases had fallen to the double digits. In fact, there were more than 100 cases every day during the week leading up to the annual holiday period.
Deputy premier Geneviève Guilbault, sitting in for her vacationing boss on Monday, proclaimed the situation stable for the moment. But for it to remain so — with many Quebecers fanning out across the province over the next two weeks, getting together with friends or visiting family — everyone will have to be on their best behaviour.
The dip in cases toward the end of June lulled us into a false sense of security that we had managed to keep the coronavirus at bay just in time for summer. It led to a flurry of deconfinement measures, most notably the opening of bars, which helped fuel the latest rise in COVID -19 transmission. Let’s not make the same mistake twice.
Dr. Richard Massé, a high-ranking health official replacing national director of public health Dr. Horacio Arruda at Monday’s briefing, said that after Montrealers who had been out drinking showed up en masse to get tested last week at the behest of local authorities, only four establishments were tied to outbreaks. Three were in Montreal and one was in Brossard.
But even if the fallout was largely contained, a handful of pubs still contributed to a lot of new cases.
It just goes to show that it doesn’t take much to drive contagion. Continued vigilance is needed. Let’s hope mandatory face masks and tough new measures for bars, like a midnight last call and a ban on dancing, keep new COVID-19 cases in check.
Turns out it’s house parties everyone is now worried about. In private homes there is no oversight, no closing time, no prohibition on mingling, no masks required. Even if gatherings are supposed to be limited to 10 people from three households, this is much more difficult to police. It may get even more complicated as more Quebecers flock to far-flung regions where there are fewer resources to detect or monitor high-risk social events.
Various analyses also show that young people — those under 20 and those 20 to 29 — are accounting for a growing share of the new cases. This has some experts worried that many are simply growing weary of public health guidelines or exhibiting typical youthful feelings of invincibility.
There’s no doubt the confinement took a terrible toll on everyone’s mental health, from children to the elderly.
We are all craving a return to some semblance of normalcy, the freedom to get away, the thrill of escape, some respite from the dreariness of the ongoing battle against the pandemic.
But what happens on vacation won’t stay on vacation, not with a virus like COVID-19 lingering. Our actions in the heat of the moment may have lasting repercussions when we come home and for some time after summer has drawn to a close.
So, by all means go out and have fun now, while we can. We all need a break. But we can’t forget the unwelcome visitor lurking in our midst. We can’t relax too much when it comes to this pernicious virus.
There’s no holiday from COVID -19.