‘Don’t hesitate to get tested,’ Dubé tells Quebecers
Health minister makes special plea to those returning from vacation
Quebec’s health minister welcomed the province’s thousands of construction-holiday vacationers back Monday with a succinct plea: If you think you may have breached COVID-19 hygiene regulations and put yourself at risk, please go get tested.
“For those who have returned from their vacations ... there may have been moments during your holidays where you were maybe less attentive and cases where, inadvertently, you could have contracted the virus, even if we see people are making efforts,” Christian Dubé said during a press briefing at Place des Arts.
“So I ask the general population, whether you went on holiday or not, I put a lot of stress on voluntary testing. If you have the least doubt that, even inadvertently, or maybe there was a small party that you thought would be less than 10 people, but it became a bit larger, please don’t hesitate to get tested.”
Last week showed a resurgence in cases among adolescents and young adults and “it’s clear the virus is still circulating among those people, and we can’t give up,” Dubé said.
Quebecers have been vigilant about following directives for wearing masks and social distancing, Dubé said. Testing figures hit record numbers, repeatedly rising above 17,000 a day in July and hitting 18,437 tests on July 30, Dubé said
“The good news is that over the last week we have seen a certain stability,” with the number of daily cases dropping below 150 after surging past 180 cases in late July, Dubé said. He credited the fact that wearing a mask has quickly become a social norm with helping to control numbers. Quebec made masks mandatory in public indoor spaces as of July 18.
Because the majority are complying, there’s no plan to institute fines, but Dubé said that could change if necessary.
Public health director Horacio Arruda said the majority of recent outbreaks have been traced to day camps, where counsellors who were attending meetings or socializing outside of work brought it back. A few others have been associated with foreign labourers. He encouraged parents to be extra vigilant in day-camp settings.
“The situation is currently under control ... but remains precarious,” he said.
Quebec recorded 123 new cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the provincial total to 59,722 cases. Two new deaths were recorded for a total of 5,683 fatalities. The number of hospitalizations remained at 172 individuals. Of those, 18 are in intensive care, an increase of one.
The main preoccupation is for Quebec to reduce its number of active COVID-19 cases, currently standing at about 3,100 individuals, “so when we enter into a second wave, we’re in a position where the number of those cases is as low as possible,” Dubé said.
For parents concerned about a lack of new directives since June on how Quebec intends to send its hundreds of thousands of children back to school in a few weeks, Dubé said an updated plan that factors in new findings garnered over the summer will be presented by the education minister next week.
As Quebec embarked on its first day of allowing gatherings of 250 people indoors Monday to the consternation of many who fear it could spur outbreaks and derail a return to school, Arruda said he believes those types of gatherings are less risky than private parties, indoors or outdoors, that are still limited by law to a maximum of 10 people.
Gatherings of 250 people are only allowed indoors in auditorium-seating areas like performance halls or religious institutions where people must maintain social distancing, Arruda said. So far, no outbreaks have been linked to similar indoor gatherings of 50 people.
“We really think that in a space that is large enough to have 250 people who are going to go to a show, sitting in a chair, separated by 1.5 metres, I would say the risk there is very acceptable compared to a party with 30 people inside, where the type of interaction would be completely different.”
With many Quebecers staying home during the summer months, camping get-togethers on local campgrounds are another possible source of infections, he said.
People attending an opera at Place des Arts are not likely to hug and kiss one another, as happens at private social gatherings, Arruda said.
Problems with presenting recent data figures are linked to the fact Quebec is updating its computer systems in order to integrate information coming from the Institut national de santé publique (INSPQ) and from Quebec’s public health department, Dubé said. Once the updates are in place, the government will be better able to analyze data, and to improve contact tracing and case recording, he said.