Quebec Public Health Director Horacio Arruda was questioned for three hours Wednesday by members of the National Assembly on the Legault government’s COVID-19 response.
Opposition parties demanded the director appear before the Assembly to ask him the questions “people are asking,” said Quebec Solidaire spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
Unfortunately for them, many of their questions went unanswered.
Liberal Party Leader Dominique Anglade wanted to know what Arruda had done before March 9, 2020 to alert the government to the emergence of the virus.
Arruda said he could not remember when he sent the first coronavirus report to the Minister of Health but promised to return with an answer.
Anglade also wanted to know if Arruda had asked the government to replenish its stocks of sanitary equipment in anticipation of the crisis.
According to her, the Legault government waited until February 27, 2020 to issue calls for tenders to replenish the stocks of PPE, such as gloves and masks.
The first case of COVID-19 in Quebec was confirmed on February 28.
Arruda responded that issuing a call for tenders was not his responsibility.
Arruda was also questioned on the government’s restricted use of rapid testing. Arruda said that, in his opinion, rapid tests can be unreliable.
It was the first time in the 10 months that Quebec has been gripped by the coronavirus that opposition parties spoke directly to Arruda.
In preparation for the hearing, opposition parties said they were planning to cover several areas in their questioning, including infections in schools, infection rates among caregivers, and the government’s response to the second wave.
“I think a lot of people are wondering about the management of the crisis,'' said Nadeau-Dubois at a press briefing before the hearing.
-- With files from Luca Caruso-Moro.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on Dec. 9, 2020.
