MONTREAL -- After hearing from several workers and experts on the thousands of deaths  at Quebec's long-term care homes during the first COVID-19 wave, including Quebec director of public health Horacio Arruda, Quebec coroner Gehane Kamel is expected to question the Legault government's former minister of health Danielle McCann on Wednesday.

On Monday, Arruda revealed that he suspected as early as Jan. 2020, well before the state of health emergency was declared on March 13, that the homes (CHSLDs) would be hit by COVID-19.

On Tuesday morning, it was assistant deputy minister of seniors and caregivers at the Health Ministry, Natalie Rosebush's turn to speak.

The coroner wanted to know how the CHSLDs were prepared for the pandemic, and said she thought Rosebush's testimony would be "particularly important."

"You are, unfortunately, carrying something on your shoulders that is very heavy," she said.

Rosebush explained that a guide was released on March 12 and a panel of experts was formed on April 11.

As of March 31, there were already 400 outbreaks in nursing homes, said Dr. Jacques Ramsay, who is assisting the coroner.

"Your group arrived on April 11, so it's a little late," he said.

"We knew this would happen," said Kamel. "We put a lot of action into the hospitals, and it's as if you were there, but always on the side of the road, next to the big health system. How do you explain that?"

"If it had been the children, if we were talking about children, we would probably all be out there tearing each other's shirts. There, they are seniors, it is as if it was in the air of time, that it was natural that they would...," Kamel added, without finishing her sentence.

The inquest continues Tuesday afternoon with testimony from Luc Desbiens, assistant deputy minister of infrastructure, logistics, equipment and procurement.

The coroner is also expected to hear from Yvan Gendron, who was the deputy minister in charge of the Ministry of Health during the first wave of COVID-19.

-- This report by the Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 16, 2021.