Reporting delay lowers daily tally
Small crowd gathers to demonstrate against government's four-week curfew
Quebec reported 1,744 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the lowest daily tally reported in more than a month, with 754 of those in Montreal — but those figures were incomplete.
The health ministry said in a statement that a delay in transmission of laboratory data had caused a delay in the reporting of COVID -19 cases to public health departments on Saturday and a resulting dip in the number of new cases reported. It said the situation would be resolved during the day Sunday and the rest of the cases reported in the next update on Monday.
Quebec also reported 50 new deaths, but the number of people in hospital dropped for the third straight day.
A demonstration against the four-week curfew imposed by the Quebec government in an attempt to curb the number of cases of COVID-19 took place Saturday in Montreal's Mercier–hochelagamaisonneuve borough.
The event, organized by a group called “No police solution to the health crisis,” drew about 50 demonstrators and a strong police presence. There were no arrests, said Montreal police spokesperson Julien Lévesque.
In a statement on Facebook, the group called the curfew, which began Jan. 9 and remains in effect from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. until Feb. 8, “repressive” and “authoritarian.”
“We believe that the choice of enforcing a curfew is a political one,” it said. “Let's remain vigilant in the face of the pandemic and concerned for our public health, but let us not give into authoritarian measures.”
Meanwhile, there have been sharp increase in daily COVID -19 case counts nationally since late December. A statement from Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, on Saturday said the latest national data show daily averages of 7,616 new cases during the week of Jan 8 to 14. Infection rates are high across all age groups, she said, but highest among those 80 and older — those who are at the greatest risk for severe outcomes.
Hospitalizations and deaths lag behind increased case counts by one to several weeks, Tam said, and these are also increasing.
Tam cited a model from Simon Fraser University forecasting as many as 10,000 cases daily by the end of January, with rising hospital admissions and deaths expected to follow. “We urgently need the combined efforts of local authorities and Canadians to bend the curve of this resurgence, even as COVID-19 vaccinations continue throughout the country,” she said.