Legault says there’s no place but home for the holidays

Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced on Thursday afternoon that the plan to offer Quebecers four days in which to have small Christmas gatherings is now off the table.
“Honestly it’s not a good idea,” Legault said, citing rising daily COVID-19 caseloads and increasing pressure on the healthcare system as the reasons why it is “not realistic” to expect the current situation to have improved within the next three weeks.
Because schools and businesses have already started to rearrange schedules to accommodate the isolation period established as part of the Christmas plan, the Premier said that he expects people to continue to follow the plan of staying home as much as possible between December 17 and the first week of January.
“We have a limited number of nurses, and our nurses are very tired,” he said, arguing that as daily case loads rise, hospitalizations follow, and that an already stressed healthcare system cannot handle additional pressure.
Quebec reported 1,470 new cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of people infected to 146,532. The data also report 30 new deaths, for a total of 7,155. The number of hospitalizations decreased by 3 compared to the previous day, for a cumulative total of 737. Among these, the number of people in intensive care remained stable, for a total of 99.
The Estrie region, meanwhile, recorded a new daily high with 126 new cases spread across all sectors. There were two new deaths, one at the Centre d’hébergement Villa-Bonheur in Granby and the other at the Brooks Residence in Sherbrooke, bringing the regional total to 68. Information on hospitalization numbers and the breakdown by individual municipality was unavailable yesterday.
The outbreak at the Villa-Bonheur residence continued to be the hotspot in the region, with an additional 29 cases being confirmed among residents and staff. As of Thursday’s figures, 69 residents had received positive diagnoses alongside 33 employees. There have been two deaths linked to COVID-29 at the establishment so far.

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