Quebec reported 471 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday as the number of infections in the province continues to rise.
Four more deaths were added to the provincial death toll, which now stands at 5,809. Only one of the four additional deaths happened in the last 24 hours, while the other three took place between Sept. 16 and 21.
Hospitalizations continue to climb — an additional 10 people were hospitalized in the past 24 hours, bringing the toll to 178. Two more people were sent to intensive care for a total of 30.
The total number of COVID-19 infections in Quebec now stands at 69,088 since the pandemic began.
The province reported 21,736 people were tested on Monday — the last day for which testing data is available. Quebec has now done 2,136,944 COVID-19 tests since the beginning of the health crisis.
COVID-19 second wave ‘very different’: Quebec health minister
The second wave of COVID-19 in Quebec will be younger, more spread out across the province, and possibly more challenging for the health network compared to the first wave, Health Minister Christian Dubé said Tuesday.
Most COVID-19 deaths during the first wave were concentrated in Montreal-area closed living environments such as long-term care homes. The second wave, however, is being driven by community spread in regions that were largely untouched the first time around, Dubé said.
Quebec reported 489 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, one day after the province’s public health director, Dr. Horacio Arruda, announced that the second wave of the pandemic had begun.
READ MORE: Quebec at beginning of second coronavirus wave as cases jump, top doctor warns
“We noticed that the start of this second wave is not all like the first wave,” Dubé told reporters in Quebec City. Regions that were spared in the spring, such as the Quebec City area, “are now very affected by the virus.”
The second wave is also driven mostly by younger people who may be less likely to fall seriously ill but who are more likely to spread the virus in the community, where it is more difficult to trace, Dubé said.
Eventually, he said, those cases will make their way into the health network, which has been “weakened” by an exhausting spring and summer fighting the novel coronavirus. “People are tired. Our employees are tired. It was difficult, we gave them holidays, but that’s not sufficient. I think we need to protect them.”
- Ontario doctors offer solutions to help address shortage of family physicians
- Capital gains changes are ‘really fair,’ Freeland says, as doctors cry foul
- ‘Dangerous message’: Experts slam anti-sunscreen claims circulating online
- ‘Trying not to die’: Tourism operators loaded with debt despite rising demand
Also on Tuesday, the health minister raised the alert level for three more regions. Dubé said the Laval region north of Montreal and the Outaouais region in western Quebec will be moving to the orange, or moderate, alert level. The Centre-du-Quebec region in central Quebec will move from green to the yellow, early-warning level, he said.
Orange is the second-highest level in the province’s COVID-19 risk-assessment system, which measures the risk posed by COVID-19 in specific geographic areas.
READ MORE: Quebec sees 489 new coronavirus cases as hospitalizations jump by 20
Laval and Outaouais join Montreal, the Quebec City area as well as the Chaudière-Appalaches region in the orange list, which involves tighter restrictions on bars and restaurants as well as lower limits on most indoor gatherings.
In orange zones, bars and restaurants will need to stop selling alcohol at 11 p.m. and close by midnight, while a maximum of six patrons will be allowed to sit at the same table, down from 10 patrons. Indoor private gatherings in orange zones will be capped at six people, down from 10 people.
When asked how they would enforce the measures on private gatherings, Dubé did not rule out giving police increased powers to intervene without having to obtain a warrant, although he said such a measure would be a last resort.
Minister of Public Security Geneviève Guilbault told reporters on Wednesday that police will not be instructed to go into people’s homes to intervene on gatherings.
“If we have to go there, we’ll go there,” Dubé however said on Tuesday. “I think we can do without going there,” he added.
Dubé also put out a call for retired dentists, nutritionists, medical technicians, midwives and other professionals who are interested to help with COVID-19 testing to put their names forward through a government website. He said the government also needs to recruit more contact tracers to meet the growing demand.
–with files from Global News’ Alessia Maratta
Comments