Quebec saw a record 16,461 new cases Friday, and the city extended the state of emergency for another five days.
Updates from December, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Denis Villeneuve writes a eulogy to Jean-Marc Vallée – in English, in the Hollywood Reporter. The cause of death is still unknown.
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Kate
Nearly jumped out of my skin when the phone went off just now. Really? People won’t already have heard about the curfew?
I saw a tweet saying that Legault is like a grandparent who’s just figured out how to email everyone in the family at once…
NDG07
And even worse, many videotron customers across the province cannot watch TV after the alert.
Max
There was an alert? Weird that I didn’t get that one.
Anyone know what happened today at Peel and Ste. Catherine in the mid-afternoon? There were about 8 police cars and an ambulance. Plus another half-dozen blocking access from de Maisonneuve and R-L to Peel and the adjacent streets.
Kate
NDG07, indeed the alert seems to have screwed up TV service just as people were watching one of the new year specials.
CE
I heard it on the radio but the phones didn’t go off like usual.
Kate
Mine certainly did. I was reading, with the phone next to my pillow, when EE-AW-EE-AW yikes.
Uatu
Luckily my phone is on vibrate. I’m still waiting to hear the purge siren at 10pm tho
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Kate
The Journal looks at what 2022 has in store in various categories – municipal projects and legal challenges, including Alexandre Bissonnette’s sentencing decision in the Supreme Court and the trial of André Boisclair, once PQ chief and now facing a sexual assault charge. Also, a provincial election coming.
Also a retrospective of the year in the city.
Ian
HNY! May this be the year where all if the problems can be solved by clowns.
Kate
Thank you, Ian. Happy new year to you as well.
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Kate
There isn’t a lot of news Friday morning besides reactions to the new government measures. Restaurant owners are angry at having to close their dining rooms on New Year’s Eve. Le Devoir simply looks at the morale in Quebec and finds us weary.
The health ministry cites studies to show that curfews work, although it’s not a well-defined effect. Although Quebec has the most stringent pandemic measures at the moment, Canada’s Dr Theresa Tam is also recommending that everyone reduce their contacts.
jeather
They show that curfews work to keep people at home (fine), but I haven’t seen anything compelling showing the last round of curfews in Quebec did anything re transmission — our curves were pretty similar to the rest of the country.
mare
It surprises me that they don’t emphasize the real reason for these more stringent measures: reduce contacts NOW. Stay home, don’t go shopping or visit people during the day. The situation is in a way much more dire than in 2020 when we *had* a complete lockdown, but yet again political and economical reasons are more important.
During the pressers there’s lots of talk about getting vaccinated and boostered, which are important on the long term, but the current situation is that omicron will infect and spread just fine, if people are vaccinated or not. Even countries with very high vaccination levels like Portugal have huge spikes in cases.
Also there should be instructions for better masking when you really can’t avoid to be near people like in stores (hopefully doing only essential shopping) or public transport, or if you have to work near other people.
Wearing just a fabric or surgical mask alone doesn’t cut it anymore against omicron, so please wear a N95, KN95 or KT94 mask if you have them, or double mask with a well fitting fabric mask *over* a surgical mask. Don’t forget to bend the nose wire to close the gap under your eyes. You want to filter most incoming and outgoing air to minimize infection and spread.(You can think and say that the government made wrong choices in the past with allowing Christmas gatherings, but let’s just do it right this time and stay home for a couple of weeks.)
The current situation and outlook in our healthcare system is very, very grim, and with all the cases ‘in the pipeline’ things won’t get better soon.
Kate
Good points, mare.
I’m still sick, and have to say, given that over the past couple of weeks I only went out for a couple of unavoidable errands, and double-masked the whole time, Omicron is a hell of a bug. I haven’t been tested, but I don’t need to be. There’s nothing else this could be, and I’m isolating anyway, but my god. I haven’t had a head cold in 2 years and haven’t had flu or anything else, but Omicron got me.
MarcG
@Kate: I’ve been meaning to ask you if you had any theories on where you picked it up. That’s pretty scary. Makes me feel a bit less crazy for having groceries delivered and never seeing anyone. Hope you feel better soon.
Uatu
Omicron is a hell of a bug… heh I heard that in Rick James’ voice. Take care and happy new year Kate
Kate
I did have to wait a little while inside a storefront about ten days ago for a transaction to go through – customers were masked, but the two people working behind a plexiglas partition were not. I’m not saying this was necessarily the place, but it’s the only situation I can think of where exposure seemed possible.
I have no idea whether Omicron can infect a person who steps inside a small store for a five-minute errand, when everyone present is masked. But if it’s indeed that virulent, good luck to us.
david455
If you can, you should try to get a test for covid when you feel well enough to, Kate. A lot of people are sick right now (including me), and I just came back negative for covid. That makes sense, as you can catch a cold from handling a door handle or eating a prepared meal, but you can’t get covid that way. The reasons you’d want to test would be to know how your body responded to this this covid episode (negative test means you still don’t know), and also to give the province more data on the scale of the current wave in form of positivity rate.
Many people who think it’s covid are very surprised to discover that it’s not. The tell-tale is completely losing the olfactory sense of taste and smell, which hit me both times I went down with covid. Otherwise, very good chance it’s just the flu or whatever.
steph
Is Covid Omnicron airborn? or is it still just droplet transmission. IIRC they concluded in the beginning that Covid was in droplets which fall to the ground and masks that cover your “moist speaking”, sneezing and splatters are worn to protect others. Sealing the top of your nose & wearing double layers did not add prodection if others weren’t areosoling the virus.
Raymond Lutz
What do you mean, steph? Covid (any variants) has always been airborn. And no need to talk to produce virion bearing aerosols
Kate
david, loss of smell and taste are not nearly as typical of Omicron.
How many people are home right now, thinking they feel too lousy to go line up somewhere for hours to get a test? I bet it’s a lot.
Ephraim
@Kate – Seen the articles on people who have even worse that loss of smell and taste? People saying food tastes or smells of gasoline or vomit. And it’s likely never going to return, if it lasts past a year. Omicron’s symptoms supposedly differ for those vaccinated from those unvaccinated. For those vaccinated, it appears to resemble the common cold with congestion or a runny nose. But for the unvaccinated, it appears to resemble Delta and of course pneumonia, need for oxygen, etc.
ant6n
The testing situation in Quebec is sad, 2 years into the pandemic. In Berlin they have little test centers every couple of corners, testing is mandatory for many kind of events or the unvaccinated. It’s perhaps not super medical professional, but it beats not testing.
Kate
Ephraim, I’m double-vaxxed and only dealing with one of the symptoms on the Omicron list. It can stop anytime though.
Tee Owe
It’s interesting – 2 years ago if we caught a virus we wouldn’t ask ‘where did I catch it’ ‘did I screw up on masking/distancing , ‘is it covid/flu/ordinary cold (most of whichBTW are coronavirus-induced)’ – we would just get on with dealing with it – now we are conditioned or educated to ask these questions – maybe not a bad thing – ?
MarcG
Whenever I’ve caught a cold/flu in the past my first thought is always “which of you bastards gave this to me?”. Last one in Feb 2020 was 100% my optometrist.
CE
Kate
For me, once it was the most lousy airplane experience I’ve had. I got wedged in the back row beside an enormous woman with a terrible head cold, and a day after i got home I came down with it and was sick for a week.
Another time – I was walking around Park Avenue with a friend, in wintertime. There was a woman who used to panhandle, using a pair of half-broken elbow crutches for pathos. I have not seen her in awhile. But there she was, sitting on a bench in midwinter, and she asked us, first, for money, and then if we could take her somewhere in Park Ex.
My friend is a softie. He has, in my company, occasionally given rides to some fairly dubious characters, as in this case. She had a cold, and within a day both he and I were afflicted with the most intractable and miserable colds either of us have ever had.
Usually, though, because I was working someplace and contacts were impossible to trace, I never had a clue.
CE: excellent link. Thank you!
H. John
Kate, you wrote:
“I did have to wait a little while inside a storefront about ten days ago for a transaction to go through – customers were masked, but the two people working behind a plexiglas partition were not. I’m not saying this was necessarily the place, but it’s the only situation I can think of where exposure seemed possible.
I have no idea whether Omicron can infect a person who steps inside a small store for a five-minute errand, when everyone present is masked. But if it’s indeed that virulent, good luck to us.”The person didn’t have to be present to infect you. The government should have been stressing all along the importance of aerosols in transmission.
If they had people would pay more attention to ventilation.
If the air isn’t changed, for example through better ventilation providing new not re-cycled air, then the virus can hang in the air for hours.
This isn’t new. We’ve known that measles can remain airborne for 2 hours.
Here’s a paper from Ontario Health on COVID-19 Transmission Through Large Respiratory Droplets and Aerosols from May 2021:
And, from page 7:
“Given that persistence of aerosols over time is a factor in long-range transmission, the viability of SARS- CoV-2 in aerosols is important to consider. The half-life of SARS-CoV-2 in aerosols is approximately 1 hour.48,49”
And this was published when Delta was prevalent and nowhere near as contagious as Omicron.
We should be paying as much attention as possible to better ventilation (aerosol), distancing (droplets), and better masks (N95 or KF95).
Kate
H. John, then I think it must have been that. I was stuck waiting for something for nearly an hour in a fairly small space with virtually no ventilation. Thanks for the cite!
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Kate
Quebec is imposing a curfew between 10 pm and 5 am starting Friday night. Private gatherings are forbidden, restaurant dining rooms are closed, and schools are closed till January 17 at least.
I guess the metro won’t be running all night Friday to Saturday.
dwgs
Does anyone know if schools closed actually means online?
Kate
I listened to the whole presser and this was asked, but not clearly answered. I got the impression different school boards/areas, different levels of school, will be deciding differently. Maybe see what the relevant board says?
Radio-Canada says: “Les écoles resteront fermées au moins jusqu’au 17 janvier dans l’ensemble des régions de la province. Le gouvernement invite les établissements qui le peuvent à poursuivre les apprentissages en ligne avant le retour en présence. … En ce qui concerne les cégeps et les universités, la santé publique n’a pas fixé de date de retour en classe pour le moment.”
Joey
From the CSSDM:
Enseignement à distance à partir de la semaine du 3 janvier
Des services éducatifs à distance seront offerts dès la semaine du 3 janvier et le retour en classe en présentiel est désormais prévu le 17 janvier, selon l’horaire établi au calendrier de chaque école. Un prêt de matériel informatique sera offert aux élèves le nécessitant.
Max
Details are sketchy but the CEEB says the next 3 Sundays are going to be quiet too. Gas stations, deps, grocers, pharmacies and takeout only I suppose.
H. John
The available .pdf gives more detail on each issue. English version not posted yet.
John B
And https://www.quebec.ca/sante/problemes-de-sante/a-z/coronavirus-2019/mesures-en-vigueur/entreprises-commerces-et-boutiques has more on businesses closing Sundays.
Tellement laïque.
Max
Thanks, Johns. Looks like the next few Saturdays will be busier than usual at the groceries.
Kevin
Schools had already been told to be online starting next week.
Just impose a vaccine mandate on everything already, and jail the people with fakes documents.
paulg
I’d like to see some restrictions specific to those without vaccines…
-requirement to pay a portion of any health care costs
-limited number of spaces for them in the health care system, in order to keep all previously schedule health services moving forwardMax
I am thoroughly disappointed at the media’s unwillingness to vilify the unvaccinated. The CBC says the 10% that are unvaccinated are imposing 50% of the load on the healthcare system. Were it not for them we probably wouldn’t have to endure this next round of suckage. Why aren’t these people being publicly shat upon?
Pity the poor nurses and doctors obliged to care for these dolts.
How about a new tick box added to next spring’s “Contribution” To The Health Services Fund tax form? Not vaccinated? Pony up an extra $1000, selfish fucktard.
h< John
Max, you’re not the only person who is frustrated by poor choices.
But universal health care doesn’t choose between users who have made good or bad choices.
Drugs or alcohol addicts, people with an eating pattern that increases a chance of diabetes or heart or other disease, shouldn’t they pay more?
We really are a society of preventable diseases; but, should we base on “universal health care” on how many boxes you check off?
I’ve got the feeling I’m going to be pushed out of line by a vegan.
We did the same thing with “no fault” car insurance. We debated at length whether bad (i.e. drunk) actors should be treated differently. Lisette Lapointe, Jacques Parizeau’s wife, crusaded, for very personal reasons, for more than decade to end “no fault” car insurance for drunk drivers. She lost.
Vaccination is only one part of protecting people.
While we’re ranting at anti-vaxers, shouldn’t we be asking Premier Legault why N95 or KN95 or KF94 masks aren’t easily available in Quebec pharmacies where most people would look for them.
Schools still don’t have better ventilation or hepa filters; most health care workers don’t have N95 masks.
We’re at year two, going in to year three.
I think Josée Légault was spot on when she wrote:
“remplacer le directeur de la santé publique du Québec. Depuis le début de la crise, le bilan du Dr Horacio Arruda, plus politique et divertissant que scientifique et indépendant, est décevant. Probabilité : si les Québécois sont chanceux, il sera remplacé par la Dre Mylène Drouin ou la Dre Joanne Liu. “
https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/12/29/2022-pas-trop-sure-de-vouloir-te-rencontrerGC
I wonder if it’s ever been the case that Arruda made good recommendations and Legault ignored them, anyway. I’m not defending Arruda, because I have no way of knowing, but it’s not an impossible scenario to imagine. All the same, we obviously aren’t getting rid of Legault anytime soon.
GC
Are grocery stores being forced to close on those Sundays? Were they not previously considered “essential”?
jeather
I seem to remember they were closed on Sundays at the beginning for cleaning, because shoving all the grocery shopping into Saturday will surely help.
I also do not agree with charging the unvaccinated more, but I really wish we’d expand the vaccine passport a lot more — even if it’s just to allow stores to require it when they don’t yet, and to allow employers to require it, and to allow people to ask their doctors/hairstylists/whatever to show it.
Kate
They definitely had Sunday grocery closures in April 2020, although I don’t recall when this was rescinded. My local fruiterie, which had previously been open every day, has closed on Sundays ever since, once the owners realized they loved having a day off.
Update: A quick Google reminded me: the Sunday closure was imposed in April 2020 and rescinded the following month.
GC
Oh, I had totally forgotten about that! At the beginning of the Pandemic, I was restricting myself to one visit to the grocery store per week and I usually picked a weekday afternoon… I do remember, at the time, that they also had reduced hours in the evenings and I questioned the wisdom of that because it seemed like it would increase exposure rather than reduce it.
On a side note, how sad that the Pandemic is gone on long enough that I’m forgetting details of past phases :(.
Ephraim
While we can’t really charge for NOT being vaccinated, we could discount for being vaccinated. Increase the personal contributions to healthcare and then rebate for those fully vaccinated by including your medicare number on your form for a discount.
It’s sort of like the MC/Visa cash discount. You can’t charge extra for using a credit card… but you can give a cash discount. So the price is $20, but just $19.40 if you pay by cash 🙂
There are other things that the government can do and should. For example, if the government created software for the doctors to track clients, appointments and vaccination, they could send out scheduling reminds for when you need a physical, that would lower the costs to the system. If you don’t have your vaccinations, it could remind you that your health is at risk and that you will be triaged lower because you don’t have the required vaccinations for priority care…
Also… why are we not vaccinating for shingles yet? It’s expensive to treat and if the government put in a program, they could negotiate the cost of the vaccine down.
vasi
I’m of two minds about making the unvaccinated pay. On the one hand, I do agree with John that we need universal healthcare, not healthcare only for those who’ve made only good choices in life.
On the other hand, we already are choosing to deny some people services! We’ve spent plenty of time this pandemic in déléstage, and soon our hospitals might have to triage care. Once that happens, we’re already making decisions based on patients’ choices–like treating a non-smoker first if they have a higher chance of survival.
So I’d like the government to make that constraint more visible. As long as we can treat everyone, let’s treat everyone. But announce that if hospitals fill up and we have to treat selectively, the unvaccinated-by-choice are last on the list.
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Kate
To meet growing demand, a hotel for the homeless has opened in a grimly glitzy-looking hotel on René-Lévesque.
A second hotel will be opened for indigenous people, but only beginning in February.
qatzelok
Right next to an ongoing construction site. The noise will ensure sleeping problems and mental stress for the people that are being helped.
Kate
That’s still preferable to freezing to death.
Bert
Nah, qatz just wants them to be hosted at the Hotel Nul-Part, in St. Joseph de Fond de Mer.
qatzelok
Kate, of course it’s better than sleeping outside in the winter.
But at the same time, this is really bare minimum. Cruel even.
Ephraim
That used to be associated with Day’s Inn. I’ve been there once… really not great, even when it was a hotel. I assume, again, they want to redo it, after the city… or to be bought out.
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Kate
Hockey player Logan Mailloux, all over the news in July when he was the Canadiens’ top draft pick, followed by the team turning him down after a general outcry about his offence in Sweden, has been reinstated by the Ontario Hockey League. Any bets when we’ll see his NHL debut once they feel a suitable period of exile has passed?
j_zero
Interesting that they decided to announce this simultaneously with the announcement of the cancellation of the WJC tournament.
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Kate
A lot of icy rain is being forecast for New Year’s Day.
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Kate
Two cars were torched in the wee hours in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. Figures were seen fleeing the area but no arrests have been made.
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Kate
La Presse is surmising the possible return of a curfew as of Friday, when François Legault gives another presser on Thursday at 5 pm.
The Quebec site for making testing appointments is
still downback up with CTV putting snarky scare quotes around “maintenance.”Patrick Lagacé has some thoughts about a curfew even before it’s announced.
j_zero
CBC radio just said it’s back up on the 9AM newscast. Not sure if the cancelled appointments have been recovered, however.
Kate
At 8:30 they were saying it was still down. Thanks, j_zero.
Kevin
I think Legault gave up a few weeks ago and is now making every decision based solely on re-election — if he thinks he can still get re-elected.
Kate
What’s he worried about? The CAQ are a shoo-in.
Joey
@Kevin I’m surprised that (a) you thought re-election only started driving Legault’s decision-making a month ago and (b) you think there’s any way the CAQ doesn’t win I a landslide next October.
Eva
@disclosetv
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2h
JUST IN – Robert Koch Institute report released today states that 95.58% of the #Omicron cases in Germany are fully vaccinated (28% of those had a “booster”), 4.42% are unvaccinated.MarcG
shady news source alert
Kevin
@Joey @Kate
Pre-Delta and Omicron it would have been a cakewalk. But now? I think people are seeing that Papa Legault’s tactics aren’t keeping the population covid-free.If Legault really thought he was a shoo-in for re-election, he would have imposed a curfew and other measures two weeks ago. Instead he held a pair of news conferences at 6 pm to say please be careful- and then sent out Dubé on a Monday to do the dirty work of closing bars and schools.
That’s the act of a man very concerned about his image.
Kate
Kevin, who’s he facing, though? Neither the PQ nor the PLQ have the mojo right now to sink him. Living in Montreal it’s hard to believe how much the ROQ loves Legault, but they really do. The numbers don’t lie.
Kevin
Kate
There is the rub, ain’t it? But a lot can happen in a campaign. One question and the Bloc was saved from oblivion.
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Kate
Following the CDC decision, the NHL is reducing its Covid isolation period to five days. I can’t make out whether this reduction is based on science or on fatalism propelled by capitalism.
Santé Québec had a fiasco with the testing system Wednesday, when its computer system suddenly cancelled a lot of appointments. And rapid tests are now unavailable.
There are multiple outbreaks in CHSLDs and other old-age care homes around Quebec. And now health workers with Covid will be expected to work.
I think we got a bad copy of this game. All the cards say “Déjà Vu, draw again.”
dhomas
Strangely, my parents got a call from their pharmacist and were able to pick some RATs today.
steph
With infected nurses being forced to work, can we now say Legault was right to be scared of them? /s .
These clowns never fail to disappointment me.
LJ
There is some discussion of these issues here.
Chris
So when the science points to needing more restrictions, the mantra is ‘follow the science’ but when the science points to needing less restrictions, then the science is deemed suspect. Interesting.
Hilarious that we fired about 500 health care workers that didn’t want to be vaccinated/tested, but now the known-infected are forced to work.
Kate
Does the science point to reducing restrictions, Chris?
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Kate
A 17-year-old boy is in critical condition after getting shot in Cartierville on Tuesday evening.
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Kate
Park Extension has waited a long time to get an agreed pedestrian train crossing near Parc metro, and it’s finally officially open.
Jeff
I used it yesterday. 5/5 could cross
qatzelok
I predict excellent Trip Advisor comments for the crossing.
Kate
qatzelok, if you lived around here you’d understand why this is a significant concession by CP and an improvement for the neighbourhood.
SMD
Not a concession, they were forced to open it following a 2019 binding arbitration decision from the Canadian Transportation Agency.
Kate
Thank you, SMD.
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Kate
Tuesday marks a new high of 12,833 new Covid cases in Quebec.
H. John
Kate, I hope you’re able to find another Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) so you can re-do the test.
A number of people on twitter have been vocal about the need to swab the back of the throat, and then the nose.
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