The Minister for Health and Social Services, Lionel Carmant, reassured residents in Laval on Sunday that the COVID-19 crisis is under control there.
Carmant was in the third most populous city in Quebec and one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, after the city of Montreal.
According to the raw data published on Saturday by the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec, the cumulative number of confirmed cases amounts to 4,676 in Laval — behind Montreal (21,717) and Montérégie (5,325). The infection rate in Laval is 1,038 cases per 100,000 residents, which is even slightly higher than that of the Island of Montreal.
There have also been 448 deaths in Laval since the start of the health crisis.
But according to Carmant, the outbreak is “controlled, despite the rate of cases and death”.
While masks are not yet mandatory in Laval, Carmant said health officials are strongly recommending it.
Carmant said, however, if making masks mandatory in Laval is something that needs to be done, officials will not hesitate to do it.
On Friday, the Quebec government announced its plans to donate one million masks to Montreal, the hardest-hit city in the country, to limit the spread of the virus.
Premier François Legault said public transit authorities in the Greater Montreal area will also receive $6 million so they can buy masks and hand them out for free to commuters.
Masks aren’t mandatory, but Legault stressed that people should wear them while taking public transit. He added that people in neighbourhoods with high infection rates should also wear masks when leaving their homes.
–With files from Global News’ Alessia Maratta and Kalina Laframboise