Quebec hospitalizations finally levelling, but it's too soon to ease health rules, says Legault
Quebec is at a tipping point, and it looks like it's tipping in the right direction, Premier François Legault said Thursday, but it's too soon to ease public health rules.
He said he's seeing mostly good news this week, but in the big picture, Quebec's hospital system is still extremely fragile and it can't afford to be nudged at all towards further pressure.
"Finally we're seeing a decrease in the overall number of hospitalizations," Legault said in a press conference Thursday.
"Still, we're at the worst point so far in the pandemic."
In contrast, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced this week that Ontario will begin to ease its rules on Jan. 31, outlining a three-step plan.
Quebec isn't planning the same right now, Legault said. The good news is that if the province stays at its current level -- 3,400 people in hospital with the virus -- it won't need to move to its hospital contingency plan, he said.
"Quality of care won't have to be affected," he said.
Earlier this week, a guide released by health officials outlined how overall care in hospitals could be lessened in order to help the province get through the crisis, if it crossed a certain capacity threshold.
Aside from the high hospitalizations, 12,000 health staff are also absent from work right now, Legault said.
"So we can't permit ourselves to ease the measures... there's a real risk of increasing contagion."
Quebec's 10 p.m. curfew was lifted Monday, but other rules remain in effect, including closures of restaurant dining rooms and a ban on visiting others at home.
Legault said that in particular, the goverment hopes to let kids return to sports soon, but there's no date yet. Nor is the province ready to reopen houses of worship.
LEGAULT SAYS HE'S 'UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE'
The premier said he’s getting lobbied hard to reduce measures, including by regular citizens calling and writing to his office.
“I’m currently under a lot of pressure to remove measures, but my duty is to be responsible, to protect the lives of Quebecers,” he said.
He also can’t make predictions, he said. If Quebec has indeed reached its peak of hospitalizations, “we don’t know how long it will take before it goes down… the situation will continue to be difficult for the next few weeks,” he said.
He added that while epidemiological predictions for the next couple of weeks look promising, "there's a large margin of error," and that his government prefers to wait for more concrete evidence of progress before announcing a change to the rules.
He asked people for their patience for a while longer. “Lives are at stake,” he said.
When asked about the plan in Ontario, which is epidemiologically similar to Quebec right now, Legault said "I don't want to comment on the Ontario decisions."
But he added that it's not the number of infections or even hospitalizations that's necessarily the most important thing -- it's the capacity to take care of them. In Quebec, for example, 40 per cent of health-care workers are part-time employees, which is different from Ontario's system, and that creates scheduling difficulties.
NEW EFFORTS ON VACCINES
One major effort by the province right now is to continue the vaccine campaign at full speed, and to invest time into finding and convincing those who are unvaccinated to reconsider -- especially those who may not follow the news or may not have gotten all the information originally because of language barriers.
A new door-to-door effort will allow public health workers to try to speak directly to people in this group, though few details were released Thursday.
The province is also going to crack down on fake COVID-19 vaccine passports, making sure they're “revoked,” said Health Minister Christian Dubé. There's an ongoing anti-corruption probe into these alleged fraud schemes.
- READ MORE: Quebec will 'revoke' fake vaccine passports, health minister says amid anti-corruption probe
“The people who, unfortunately, did this … it’s very dangerous what they’ve done; to let unvaccinated people go to places that were reserved for vaccinated people,” said Dubé.
LEARNING TO LIVE WITH THE VIRUS
Legault and Dubé said that the long-term priority, in order to return to a more stable life across the province, is to hire a new cohort of staff in the health system.
"If we have, or when we have, some latitude in our health-care network, well, we can tolerate a certain percentage of hospitalizations and a return to a life that is a bit more normal," Legault said.
"But currently, we are pushed up against a wall in our hospitals so we don't have that latitude."
The need spans hospitals, long-term care homes and all other parts of the health network, and it can be hard to hire in a permanent way for many of those jobs, he said -- for example, those with frequent nighttime shifts.
"We can convince people to work at night overnight, in positions that are harder to fill, so that eventually we can live more normally with the virus," he said.
Aside from recruiting drives, the province hopes that some recent changes to collective agreements will help, Legault said, along with the monetary incentives the province handed out to retain current workers and to convince part-timers to work more hours.
Unfortunately, the province seems a long way from having the kind of permanent "wiggle room" in staffing that it really needs, he said, reminding reporters that while 12,000 workers are currently off, a few weeks ago it was 20,000.
"It's going to take a long time in Quebec before we can live with the virus," he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
World seeing near breakdown of international law amid wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Amnesty says
The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report.
Photographer alleges he was forced to watch Megan Thee Stallion have sex and was unfairly fired
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
U.S. Senate passes bill forcing TikTok's parent company to sell or face ban, sends to Biden for signature
The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok's China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers that's expected to face legal challenges.
Wildfire southwest of Peace River spurs evacuation order
People living near a wildfire burning about 15 kilometres southwest of Peace River are being told to evacuate their homes.
U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with big bipartisan vote
The U.S. Senate has passed US$95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.