Updates from March, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 15:50 on 2020-03-24 Permalink | Reply  

    It’s currently considered a tossup whether the Grand Prix will be held here on June 14.

    There’s evidence now of community transmission of COVID-19 in Montreal. This is specifically what we’re all trying to limit by staying home.

    Regular reader Matthew Hollett is building a website called COVID-19 in Canada with clear graphics and numbers of the progression of the contagion here.

    The city is putting funds into Centraide and sending workers to support Moisson Montréal in the absence of volunteers. Plateau borough has also put funds into community groups to help folks who need it.

    The STM will no longer accept cash even in its ticket machines.

    Some thoughts from Toula Drimonis on how art and creativity will support us through this time.

     

    • Alex L 17:35 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

      Kudos to Matthew Hollett, interesting graphics. It would be interesting to compare how many people have been tested in every province, as it has a direct impact on the number of cases. I don’t know about the other provinces, but in Quebec these numbers (negative testings and under investigation) are posted daily on Twitter.

    • Kate 18:10 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

      As of Tuesday, these are the numbers on the Santé Québec feed:

      ➡️1013 cas confirmés
      ➡️4 décès
      ➡️1 personne guérie
      ➡️2548 personnes sous investigation
      ➡️12 202 analyses négatives

    • Alex L 18:49 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

    • walkerp 19:20 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

      Why does Quebec have so many more cases than the other provinces? Is it more testing? Is it because of the one-week-earlier spring break? Because we have so many snowbirds here?

    • walkerp 19:21 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

      Sorry, also forgot to say that is a lovely website, Matthew. Really nice and clean visualization. Thank you!

    • jeather 21:07 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

      Is there easy to read info about how the provinces are measuring cases? There is detail that Quebec’s jump is because cases no longer need validation — but do other provinces require validation? Are we testing more or do we just have a lot more cases than BC and ON?

    • JaneyB 23:46 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

      Very nice website, Matthew. Soothing except for the content. @Alex – Testing numbers can be found here: https://virihealth.com/ Not sure how meaningful those testing numbers are; the high positives for QC make me suspect our test criteria is different esp given the low death rate. Maybe Raymond Lutz has some insight on this?

    • Mr.Chinaski 08:52 on 2020-03-25 Permalink

      walkerp, don’t forget that we have a large percentage of french (I mean from France) and italian people in Quebec. With the winter break week, a lot more people came back from these two countries compared to say, Manitoba.

    • Marco 10:19 on 2020-03-25 Permalink

      Great looking graphic Matthew Hollett. It’s at the top of my daily visits now.

    • Raymond Lutz 10:58 on 2020-03-25 Permalink

      @JaneyB: (cue the StarTrek soundtrack) “I’m an engineer, not a doctor!” 😎

      Most real world measurement outcomes (polls, meteorological surveys, etc… ) are sensitive to sampling bias. Who get to be tested, is there a one to one correspondence between ‘a test’ and ‘a case’ (multiple samples are taken for one person) , etc… all this may differ from one region to another. For more info see https://ourworldindata.org/covid-testing#covid-19-test-coverage-estimates-as-of-20-march

    • Matthew H 11:09 on 2020-03-25 Permalink

      Thanks, all. I’ve been working on the site a lot so I’d glad people are using it.

    • Kevin 14:41 on 2020-03-25 Permalink

      @walkerp
      The isolation and school closure order came 4 days after spring break ended here.
      That was 1 day before spring break started in Ontario.

    • EmilyG 16:25 on 2020-03-25 Permalink

      You can also donate to Centraide.

  • Kate 09:14 on 2020-03-24 Permalink | Reply  

    The outdoor COVID-19 testing clinic at the Place des Festivals has been busy. Ideally people are meant to pre-triage themselves into those with symptoms, just back from a trip abroad, or having been in contact with a presumed or confirmed case, before making their way to the clinic.

    The Journal says Peter Sergakis wept as he laid off 1500 workers.

    The 2020 Olympics are officially delayed till next year. I’m reading the BBC live newsfeed which also says the UK is shutting down, 514 people died in Spain in one day, Manu Dibango has died of COVID-19, and Donald Trump says the United States will soon be reopening for business.

    CBC talked to several disappointed athletes one of whom makes the point that simply trying to keep training at this point would be risky.

     

    • John B 09:42 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

      Apparently walk-ins at the clinic absolutely have to have been travelling or be in contact with a known case to get tested. The description that’s on the website is unclear and sounds like symptoms are enough, but that’s not the case, (source: someone on FB who works there saying that she had to turn people away because of the poorly-worded description). It would be great if we could see some clarification on that.

    • Ephraim 10:54 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

      Why is Sergakis even news? Plenty of people wept as they had to lay off their employees. At this point, it’s just his publicity machine… haven’t we learnt anything about people and publicity machines? That’s how you build populism.

      People who had no exposure are getting tested because they are afraid. It’s a cure for their anxiety. We should have social workers there to help them deal with anxiety.

    • Clément 10:56 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

      Let’s be clear. Sergakis was weeping because of the lost revenue, not because of his employees.

    • david100 21:33 on 2020-03-24 Permalink

      For all the bad, it would be great if Sergakis was wiped out by this. A fever ridding the body of a virus.

    • Max 07:22 on 2020-03-25 Permalink

      He is human garbage, verily. Hang in there, kids. Remember this: it’s gonna be alright.

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