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Quebec is back at the same stage of the spread of COVID-19 as at the end of March, believes epidemiologist Nimâ Machouf.
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About 700 new cases of coronavirus were added to the provincial toll of the epidemic on Saturday; expect that number to jump past 1,000 soon, warns Dre Machouf.
“We are really in the same place where we were at the end of March,” she assessed in an interview on LCN airwaves on Sunday, agreeing to the fact that Quebec will exceed 1000 daily cases before long.
In fact, we do not have to go back until the beginning of May in the statistics collected by the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ) to find a daily report of 1000 contaminations (1036 new cases on May 6, 2020).
The situation in hospitals was also at its worst in May, but on April 20, there were more than 200 hospitalizations related to COVID-19 in the province for the first time.
“Hospitalizations are increasing, deaths are increasing. They are always later indicators. […] If there is a death, it occurs a month after infection, recalls the epidemiologist. We must not wait for a high mortality rate before starting to act. ”
OPEN THE WINDOWS
It is clear that COVID-19 is back in CHSLDs and in private residences for the elderly (RPA), where patients are most vulnerable in the event of infection with the new coronavirus. This time, these circles have an opportunity to better prepare.
Apart from limiting personnel transfers and maximizing the use of protective equipment on the side of the nursing staff, Dr Machouf identifies another sinews of war that was underestimated during the first wave of transmission.
“The point on which we paid less attention during the first wave – and we still don’t pay much attention to it – is the issue of ventilation. We know that the virus can circulate in the air, ”said the epidemiologist at the Latin Quarter medical clinic in Montreal.
“As long as you can do activities outside, that’s the best thing,” says D.r Marchouf. For schools and other places where people stay locked up, if the possibility of keeping the mask is not there, you have to think about ventilation, but there are still simple and inexpensive means. “
The onset of cold weather will not be an excuse for not taking the necessary measures to contain the epidemic.
“It’s just a matter of opening the window, even if it means turning up the heating and dressing better. Scientists say it takes five air changes per hour. By opening the window 15, 20 centimeters, we can achieve the change of air which reduces the contamination. “
