In his afternoon update one Tuesday, Quebec Premier Francois Legault described the provincial healthcare system as being under extreme pressure and expressed sympathy to nursing staff. He acknowledged that nurses are being forced into burnout-inducing working conditions de-spite his party having run on a promise of cutting forced overtime, but said the government’s hands are tied by the unexpected circumstances of the pandemic.
Legault and Health Minister Christian Dube also repeated the message that Quebecers should be working to limit their contacts, though not at the cost of isolating people who live on their own.
Quebec recorded another 877 positive cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday with the note that 90 cases previously recorded as positive would be withdrawn as they should have been negative. That brought the total number of people infected to 95,216 alongside the news of 11 additional deaths, 33 new hospitalizations, and an increase of eight to the number of people in intensive care across the province.
In the Estrie region the total increased by 22 to 2,376. Despite a lower num-ber of new cases than in previous days, the region did see six more people hospitalized for the virus and two people enter intensive care. The number of COVID-related deaths in the area remained stable at 34, having not changed since October 6.
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