Restrictions lifted despite Delta
More Covid restrictions are lifted Sunday despite warnings of a fourth wave coming.
I am fairly sure I’ve seen people seated at terrasses with tables less than a metre apart already.
A resto in Old Montreal will be requiring proof of two vaccination doses before it will serve you. I am not clear how a restaurant will have the ability to read the QR code issued by the Quebec government.
Six bozos who tried to shop at a Metro store in Longueuil on Saturday without masks are getting fined.
dhomas 11:37 on 2021-08-01 Permalink
The QR code is stored in SHC (Smart Health Card) format. You can read your own (or someone else’s) on this site, though I’m sure there are others:
https://bramp.github.io/smart-health-card-scanner/
Kate 12:11 on 2021-08-01 Permalink
Thanks!
Blork 16:05 on 2021-08-01 Permalink
On the other hand, my local Provigo in Longueuil still has the hand-washing stations set up. Not just disinfectant — six full size utility sinks with soap and running water, and paper towels. You have to wash and dry your hands before you can enter the store (although for the last couple of months there’s no one policing it, but I’ve never seen anyone not do it).
walkerp 18:42 on 2021-08-01 Permalink
As much as I am against all this surface cleansing hygiene theatre, it’s generally a good idea for us to be washing our hands more regularily. That anti-bacterial poison, not so much.
DeWolf 18:06 on 2021-08-02 Permalink
Even if it turns out not to have much of an effect on Covid, washing your hands is such a good way to avoid a whole host of other diseases – the flu, the common cold, food poisoning, etc. If we can keep up the emphasis on hand-washing we’ll all be better for it in the future.
Walkerp, I’m not sure why you have a problem with hand sanitizers. It’s just alcohol, water and a gelling agent. It’s nothing spooky.
MarcG 18:40 on 2021-08-02 Permalink
I’m definitely not suggesting people stop washing their hands when they’re cooking or after going to the bathroom but I read something recently that said that fomite (touchy) transmission of the flu and other common bugs is now being shown to be a less common pathway than previously believed – that they’re similar to covid in the way they hang around in the air. (Sources? Nobody’s got time for that.)
Chris 20:56 on 2021-08-02 Permalink
DeWolf, there is evidence that all the constant sanitizing is bad. 1) our immune systems are antifragile and need exposure to bugs to ‘learn’. 2) the bugs evolve according to their environment; they could develop resistance to our sanitizing habits over time.
I’m now to the point that I make it a point to push back at any store that still insists on sanitizing upon entry. I’ll usually comply, but I’ve left a few stores when there’s an alternative store nearby.
With our high rate of vaccination, I’m happy Quebec is lifting restrictions. I think this “fourth wave” will be a dude. The MSM, as ever, seems pretty keen on selling fear. Notice the linked CTV article, as with most articles today, are stoking “more cases”. They conveniently fail to mention that, more than ever, the cases are mild thanks to vaccination. But they insist on always talking about case numbers instead of hospitalization/death numbers, which are of course plummeting.
walkerp 22:17 on 2021-08-02 Permalink
DeWolf, I was hoping that you were correct and that I was acting on received wisdom, but just checking around it seems that anti-bacterial soaps contain an added chemical that is supposedly (though not proven) used to kill bacteria. They don’t know if they are worse than regular soap, but bacteria is a necessary part of life, so I will avoid killing it willy-nilly.
From the wiki article:
“Claims have been made in the media that antibacterial soap is more effective than plain soap in the prevention of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration both recommend plain soap; there is no evidence that antibacterial soaps are any better, and limited evidence that they might be worse long-term.[9]”
JP` 22:24 on 2021-08-02 Permalink
Agree with Chris and walkerp on this. Hand-washing is very important, but we don’t need to sanitize our hands upon entry at each store if we’re out running errands or shopping. They can still have the dispenser available for anyone who wants to use it, without making it mandatory.
There are such things as hand dermatitis and issues that can arise from constantly using these products. At this point, with the evidence we have, I think we can back off on the constant hand sanitizing.
Uatu 10:38 on 2021-08-03 Permalink
Plain soap works fine. You just have to wash for at least 20 seconds to get your hands clean. 30 seconds just to be sure. that is what I do and I work in a hospital.
Joey 12:07 on 2021-08-03 Permalink
Remember early during the pandemic when we were told washing with soap was *the* most effective way to keep our hands clean? From an NYC hospital website:
“Soap molecules disrupt the fatty layer or coat surrounding the virus, ” says Dr. David Goldberg, an internist and infectious disease specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Group Westchester and an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. “Once the viral coat is broken down, the virus is no longer able to function.”
Grocery stores set up sinks in their entryways but soon enough we transitioned to your garden-variety skin-drying, awful-smelling alcoohol-based sanitizer.
Kevin 14:04 on 2021-08-03 Permalink
Instead of relying on a wikipedia page and getting leery of handwashing , I recommend you read Let Them Eat Dirt by renowned microbiologist Brett Finlay.
Kate 19:06 on 2021-08-03 Permalink
Am I the only person miming hand-sanitizing now? Most hand sanitizers are inoffensive, but you never know when you’ll hit a highly perfumed one, and then you’ve got cheap perfume in your face all day.
Raymond Lutz 19:20 on 2021-08-03 Permalink
@Kate Same! Et aussi quand je rentre à l’église, je fais semblant de tremper mes doigts dans le bénitier!
Kate 19:54 on 2021-08-03 Permalink
Raymond Lutz, fais-tu aussi semblant de faire le signe de la croix ?
Raymond Lutz 07:05 on 2021-08-04 Permalink
Que nenni! Un tel blasphème à la confesse me mériterait de lourdes pénitences! Fun fact: Denise Bombardier à quelques reprises fut traitée de “grenouille de bénitier”.