COVID-19: Seven cases in Quebec
There are now seven confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Quebec.
CTV asks whether the St Patrick’s parade will be cancelled. The parade is on its 197th installment, but I wonder whether in all that time it was ever unofficially paused for influenza or smallpox epidemics, or war. For most of its existence it wasn’t the goofy extravaganza it is now: my mother told me how her father would put on his best clothes and simply walk with the other men from St Gabriel’s, and men from other Irish Catholic parishes would also walk. There might have been banners to identify parish groups, Knights of Columbus or Ancient Order of Hibernians groups, but there weren’t floats and media or commercial entities. I don’t think there was even a marching band, although I might look that up.
(Note to CTV: It’s not a “right of spring” sweeties, it’s a “rite of spring”.)
Ste-Justine has asked its workers not to travel abroad. A private high school has suspended classes while a student is tested.
Jonathan Montpetit’s analysis of the CAQ budget suggests they handwaved the potential impact of the virus on the economy. Justin Trudeau is set to announce mitigations for the impact later Wednesday.
Michael Black 09:36 on 2020-03-11 Permalink
It gets worse.
April 14th was the date I found for Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, but now their website is saying it’s being postponed, no date given.
Since some locations have had to postpone, they’ve decided all will postpone.
Blork 11:03 on 2020-03-11 Permalink
Unfortunately I can’t find the source now, but last night I was reading somewhere about two US cities during the Spanish Flu, and how one cancelled a parade (I don’t remember which parade) and the other city didn’t. The city that did not cancel the parade had double (maybe triple) the per-capita death rate from the flu as the city that did cancel the parade.
COVID-19 is no Spanish Flu, but the whole point of these social distancing measures is to flatten the exponential rate of infection, and it absolutely works.
Kate 12:30 on 2020-03-11 Permalink
I saw the same item, Blork.
Em 12:33 on 2020-03-11 Permalink
There was a CBC article in which some experts suggested that while some events should be cancelled, outdoor ones are lower risk since the virus spreads less easily, especially in Montreal since more people are still wearing gloves. Here it is:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/coronavirus-cancellation-public-events-1.5492454
Kate 12:38 on 2020-03-11 Permalink
Well, the WHO just announced pandemic. Might change the experts’ tune.
Ian 12:43 on 2020-03-11 Permalink
Those US cities were Philadelphia and St Louis – St Louis acted only weeks faster. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/rapid-response-was-crucial-containing-1918-flu-pandemic
Interesting that we still call it the Spanish Flu when it is know widely believed that it originated in the US (Camp Upton, NY), with cases known as early as 1916, and spread throughout Europe via Étaples, France, an important troop staging and hospital camp.
Blork 13:12 on 2020-03-11 Permalink
Thanks Ian, I think that’s the same article I saw.
@Em, under normal circumstances that might be true (lower risk of outdoor activities in the cold) but I’m not sure it applies to St-Patrick’s day with all that boozy snogging plus the requisite Guinnesses (Guinnessi?) quaffed in pubs before and after the parade.
Ian 13:40 on 2020-03-11 Permalink
I will be very, very surprised if the pubs are any less full – unless the campuses close down before then.
Kate 08:13 on 2020-03-12 Permalink
Someone tweeted that the parade was cancelled in 1918, officially, but the stubborn Irish came out and marched anyway. I don’t have a link.