Coronavirus, the only game in town
All daycares, schools, CEGEPs and universities in Quebec are to be closed for at least two weeks.
Nurses will be able to sign a “doctor’s note” excusing a person from work for two weeks. Normally they don’t do this, but an exception is being made. TVA reports that a CHUM doctor has the virus after a visit to Europe, and La Presse says a health worker in Laval also has it. Yves Boisvert talks about the military discipline needed in a unit dedicated to diagnosing the virus.
There will also be strict controls over visitors to nursing homes and long-term care centres.
Parliament is suspended till April 20.
Blue 12:36 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
It hasn’t really been made clear if this means that classes are cancelled, but the schools remain open (meaning all non-teaching staff will still be required to come in), or if all the school is shut down entirely.
JaneyB 12:56 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
They don’t know yet. At Concordia, classes are cancelled starting today but today the staff is deciding which staff will be continuing to work on-site. Faculty got info about an additional digital class platform a week or so ago. Assignments and marking will continue from home. The goal is to preserve the term – which should be very do-able with all the tech options. Universities have lots of emergency planning protocols in place. They’re really just deciding which ones to use at this point.
dwgs 14:23 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
McGill is largely the same. So far it looks like I’m expected to report to work each day even though I run an undergraduate teaching lab which is of course devoid of undergrads for the immediate future. I may die of boredom before the virus gets me.
Raymond Lutz 15:11 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
my cegep will be locked up for two weeks without access of any sort (Drummondville).
Ian 15:47 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
Same but we are being allowed to teach remotely (Ste Anne)… there is some talk of staff training for those who don’t know how to use these kinds of things. My program is mostly software labs so we’re kind of ideally suited to distance learning.
Blork 16:14 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
FYI, according to the tracker at the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins U, we’re up to 17 cases in Quebec. That’s up from 11 on Wednesday.
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Raymond Lutz 16:15 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
A friend of mine is married to a doctor working at the hospital and another friend is teaching microbiology. Both concurs: no mask and no gloves, even for front lines health workers! Those protections give a false sense of security. SARS-CoV-2 is an enveloped virus and is ‘easily’ treated with soap because of its bilipid layer. Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Direct transmission? Mostly if someone sneeze right in your face and you happen to inhale droplets through your open mouth. How is it contagious, then? Contaminated surfaces spread + asymptomatic infected persons. SARS-CoV-2 can survive inside droplets on most surfaces. Wash your hands and DONT TOUCH YOUR FACE (I know, easier said than done): the virus will enter through your mouth or eyes. Disinfect surfaces with bleach solutions: “1:99 diluted household bleach (containing 5.25% sodium hypochlorite) is used for general household cleaning and disinfection. 1:49 diluted household bleach is used for surfaces or articles contaminated with vomitus, excreta and secretions.” Source: HK Centre for Health Protection Oh, and don’t wipe your ass with your fingers… 😎 Oral-Fecal route is a known mode of transmission… use TP!
Alison Cummins 16:33 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
@Raymond Lutz: “Oh, and don’t wipe your ass with your fingers… Oral-Fecal route is a known mode of transmission… use TP!”
Shouldn’t that be, “Don’t wipe other people’s asses with your fingers”? If your own ass is shedding virus, presumably you are already infected.
Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands… and cook your own food?
Raymond Lutz 16:43 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
@Alison, you’ll spread more virus around with your shitty hands than sneezing…
Alison Cummins 18:58 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
@Raymond Lutz,
Point taken about which way the transmission concern should be going. So… wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.
Note however that TP is not effective in preventing fecal contamination. Hence the universal recommendation to wash your hands after using the toilet or generally coming in contact with any part of the Icky Germ Zone (between your belly button and your knees).
The cleanest public toilets I have used are squatties with no TP, just a bucket of water and a plastic beaker.
1. Turn on the light and then enter the bathroom (it’s very gross to have a light switch inside the bathroom where someone could touch it with unwashed hands).
2. Wash your hands.
3. Use the squatty. Nice and clean with no toilet to come in contact with and few aerosols to be generated by urine streams in water or by flushing.
4. Using your freshly-washed right hand, take the beaker and dip water out of the bucket.
5. Using your freshly-washed left hand and water from the beaker, wash your butt.
6. Pull your pants up.
7. Wash your hands.
8. Leave the bathroom.
9. Turn off the light.
The best bathrooms place sinks outside the WC so that
A. You don’t have to touch a door handle after washing your hands and
B. Anyone walking by can see whether you wash your hands after going to the bathroom, increasing peer pressure.
Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. TP doesn’t cut it. People from countries who rely on water think TP is gross: you walk around with a shit-smeared butt until your next shower. Eeeew.
Raymond Lutz 19:45 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
Thanks for the description, Allison (was this in India?). I’ll discuss your protocol with my biologist friend… I hope there was a small brush for the nails, though.
Alison Cummins 21:01 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
Raymond,
Bangladesh, Turkey and Uganda.
Similar protocols will be in common use anywhere there are lots of muslims, or lots of water but no TP. Toilets are comfortable to sit on but a real hassle to keep clean.
Kevin 23:16 on 2020-03-13 Permalink
Schools at the EMSB will be open Monday and Tuesday to get essentials. Like laptops or snowpants.
Ian 18:05 on 2020-03-14 Permalink
The CEGEPs seem to be varying pretty widely. I’ve been told that at Dawson all classes are cancelled, but at Abbott if possible we are teaching remotely if possible (depending on the department) and the school itself is open, just not for classes.