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Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/covid-19-vaccine-canada-quebec-lockdown-1.5843045
Quebec's new lockdown a harsh reminder the COVID-19 end game is still several moves away
Can Quebec keep its health-care system from buckling before the vaccine has an impact?
Jonathan Montpetit ? CBC News ? Posted: Dec 16, 2020 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 6 hours ago
One day after the high of watching the first Quebecers receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the province hit a new low on Tuesday as Premier Fran?ois Legault announced he was tightening lockdown measures.
Starting Thursday, working from home will be mandatory for most office employees, at least until Jan. 11. For the two weeks after Christmas, all non-essential stores will be closed.
Elementary school students will have a week of online learning tacked on to the end of their holiday break. The province also closed bars and restaurants in the few remaining far-flung spots where they were still allowed to operate.
"We're proposing an extended holiday break," Legault said at a 5 p.m. ET news conference, his preferred hour for delivering sombre news.
All this means Quebec will ring in the New Year with public health rules at their most restrictive since the full-scale lockdown that accompanied the onset of the pandemic last spring...
...Hospitals under pressure
But before things get better, Quebecers, and Canadians, will be asked to shoulder yet more burdens, as Legault's announcement on Tuesday made clear.
The province's health-care system is once again nearing the brink of capacity in many regions. Nearly 1,000 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized, and more than 7,000 health-care workers are off work because of the virus.
"That's a lot of pressure on the hospitals," Legault said.
Schools too, he said, are in rough shape. On Monday alone, 181 classes were sent home due to outbreaks. All told, around four per cent of Quebec students have been forced to learn online.
The latest tightening of restrictions, though, falls short of the "circuit breaker" approach that health experts had been advocating.
Like many of Legault's public health measures, his extended Christmas break represents something of an imperfect compromise between medical advice and business interests. (Manufacturing businesses will be untouched by the new measures.)
Among epidemiologists and infectious disease experts, there is some concern the Christmas break is not long or broad enough to curb the infection rate....
Quebec's new lockdown a harsh reminder the COVID-19 end game is still several moves away
Can Quebec keep its health-care system from buckling before the vaccine has an impact?
Jonathan Montpetit ? CBC News ? Posted: Dec 16, 2020 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 6 hours ago
One day after the high of watching the first Quebecers receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the province hit a new low on Tuesday as Premier Fran?ois Legault announced he was tightening lockdown measures.
Starting Thursday, working from home will be mandatory for most office employees, at least until Jan. 11. For the two weeks after Christmas, all non-essential stores will be closed.
Elementary school students will have a week of online learning tacked on to the end of their holiday break. The province also closed bars and restaurants in the few remaining far-flung spots where they were still allowed to operate.
"We're proposing an extended holiday break," Legault said at a 5 p.m. ET news conference, his preferred hour for delivering sombre news.
All this means Quebec will ring in the New Year with public health rules at their most restrictive since the full-scale lockdown that accompanied the onset of the pandemic last spring...
...Hospitals under pressure
But before things get better, Quebecers, and Canadians, will be asked to shoulder yet more burdens, as Legault's announcement on Tuesday made clear.
The province's health-care system is once again nearing the brink of capacity in many regions. Nearly 1,000 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized, and more than 7,000 health-care workers are off work because of the virus.
"That's a lot of pressure on the hospitals," Legault said.
Schools too, he said, are in rough shape. On Monday alone, 181 classes were sent home due to outbreaks. All told, around four per cent of Quebec students have been forced to learn online.
The latest tightening of restrictions, though, falls short of the "circuit breaker" approach that health experts had been advocating.
Like many of Legault's public health measures, his extended Christmas break represents something of an imperfect compromise between medical advice and business interests. (Manufacturing businesses will be untouched by the new measures.)
Among epidemiologists and infectious disease experts, there is some concern the Christmas break is not long or broad enough to curb the infection rate....