“Still early to rejoice”, says Legault

Even if the Montérégie, Center-du-Québec and Capitale-Nationale almost completely pass into the red zone on Friday, there is no question of putting the whole province in the maximum alert level, Christian Dubé said on Tuesday. .

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“It would be too easy to say that you put everyone in red and then hurt places that don’t need it. Why go and close a restaurant in Lac Saint-Jean, or why go and take action in Bas-Saint-Laurent, when we don’t need to? We will continue to be very targeted, as we are doing at the moment, ”explained the Minister of Health and Social Services at a press conference on Tuesday in Montreal.

The province recorded an increase of 815 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, three new deaths and 21 hospitalizations, including 10 in intensive care. This is the third consecutive day during which Quebec does not exceed 1,000 cases.

For his part, the national director of public health, Horacio Arruda, does not want to rejoice too soon.

“I think we’ve reached a certain plateau. So people have probably tightened their [conduite]. I think that we will not be able to return to the freedom of this summer necessarily with large gatherings as long as we have not stabilized the situation intensively, ”he said.

Despite the stabilization, three regions will pass into the red zone, ie the maximum alert level, announced the Premier of Quebec.

Still work to do

“We have seen that the virus is spreading in regions other than Montreal and Quebec,” observed François Legault. This is why Public Health is adding red zones and passing all of Montérégie, all of Center-du-Québec and all of the Capitale-Nationale, including Charlevoix. “

Certain sectors of the greater Quebec City region, such as Charlevoix, and Montérégie, such as Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, had recently been able to remain in the orange zone.

Granby and Bromont, which are linked to Estrie when it comes to health, remain in orange.

The Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean for its part switches from the yellow zone to the orange zone, said Mr. Legault, because of 37 new cases in two days in the region.

He also recalled that there are still efforts to be made so that the situation does not worsen, while saluting Quebeckers for their respect for the instructions during the long Thanksgiving weekend.

However, the Prime Minister did not want to come forward with regard to the Christmas festivities, which are still too far away given the exceptional situation in which we are currently.

“We have seen in recent days that it seems to stabilize. We don’t seem to be heading towards 1500 or 2000 [cas quotidiens]. It is still too early to celebrate, but there is reason to believe that the efforts that are being made are starting to yield results, ”he added, recalling that there is no magic recipe for reducing the contamination.

New habits

However, Mr. Legault reiterated that currently, it is still private indoor gatherings that remain problematic, especially when they last more than 15 minutes.

According to him, Quebeckers will have to learn to live with new habits.

“We will have several months before us having to follow a certain number of instructions, especially for indoor gatherings. We will have to be patient, ”he said.

Enlarged red areas

The regions of Montérégie, Center-du-Québec and Capitale-Nationale will find themselves as of Friday entirely in the red zone. The cities of Granby and Bromont remain in orange, being part of the Eastern Townships in the health sector.

Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean will go from a yellow zone to an orange.

Source: Government of Quebec

• Geneviève Pettersen analyzes the authorities’ press briefing on QUB radio:

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