MONTREAL -- Quebec’s premier said Tuesday that he’s confident of two things: first, that a second wave of COVID-19 is on the way, and second, that it won’t be as bad as the first.
Premier Francois Legault isn’t saying he can accurately predict whether the caseload will be lower than what Quebec endured this spring.
Rather, his argument is that we’ve learned a lot in the last few months and have laid some new, crucial groundwork.
For example, there are the 10,000 new orderlies trained over the summer who will be working in care homes in the fall, Legault said in remarks to media.
But the biggest takeaway is the importance of masks and personal protective equipment, Legault said.
Much of the viral spread in the spring, and many of the nearly 5,000 deaths that have so far resulted, were a consequences of workers who were asymptomatic but contagious, not wearing masks.
Protocols will be much stricter from now on, he said.
He also said the province is working hard on making sure not only that there are plentiful tests for potentially infected people, but that the turnaround will be fast. He said a five-day wait, as some Quebecers have experienced, is too long.
Watch the video above to see the full report on Legault’s new assessment.
