Premier puts Gatineau, Quebec City and Lévis ‘on pause’
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“Given the critical situation, we have to act,” François Legault said Wednesday.
Author of the article:
Phil Authier • Montreal Gazette
Publishing date:
Mar 31, 2021 • 42 minutes ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation 
Quebec Premier François Legault, centre, speaks during a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday at the legislature in Quebec City. Legault is flanked by Horacio Arruda, Quebec director of National Public Health, left, and Health Minister Christian Dubé. Photo by Jacques Boissinot /The Canadian Press Article content
QUEBEC — Premier François Legault slapped additional COVID-19 restrictions on Quebec City, Lévis and Gatineau on Wednesday, rolling the curfew back to 8 p.m. and closing non-essential businesses and schools until April 12.
The Greater Montreal region will not be affected by the new restrictions, but Legault said Quebec was ready to “act swiftly” if there was a big increase there or anywhere else in the province.
“We are taking nothing for granted,” he said at a late-afternoon news conference. “It could explode at any point.”
One day after saying he had his eye on five regions that have seen spikes in cases, Legault said the situation in four of them has reached the “critical” level.
The decision means Quebec City, Lévis and Gatineau will be put “on pause” as of 8 p.m. Thursday.
In those three cities, Quebec will close non-essential businesses — including restaurants, cinemas, hair salons and gyms — as well as schools. Capacity in houses of worship will be limited to 25 people. The start of the curfew moves from 9:30 to 8 p.m.
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“Given the critical situation, we have to act,” Legault said.
On Tuesday, Legault identified five problem regions, including the Outaouais (Gatineau), Capitale-Nationale (Quebec City), Lac-St-Jean (Roberval), Bas-St-Laurent (Rivière-du-Loup) and Chaudière-Appalaches.
On Wednesday, with the exception of Lac St-Jean, those regions moved back into red status from orange.
“We have to lower the acceleration,” Quebec public health director Horacio Arruda said, “to avoid this (leading to) more hospitalizations.”
The number of daily cases in the provincial capital has doubled in less than a week, from 96 Friday to 194 Wednesday. It is expected to hit 300 Thursday. In the Outaouais, cases doubled in 24 hours to reach 100 Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, Quebec City public health officials ordered the closing of a gym where there was an outbreak of COVID-19. A total of 68 cases have been linked to the Méga Fitness gym.
Mathieu Boivin, a spokesperson for the regional health authority, told Presse Canadienne that officials inspected the gym Tuesday and concluded it wasn’t taking proper steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
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He said clients at the gym had been linked to at least eight other workplace outbreaks.
“All activity on this site is banned until further notice,” Boivin said.
Last August, an outbreak at a Quebec City karaoke bar, Le Kirouac, sparked the banning of karaoke in the province’s venues.
Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume said Wednesday he was very worried about the case numbers.
“We are in an extremely dangerous situation,” a shaken Labeaume told reporters. “For me, things have become dangerous. We will let the governments take their decisions. We will apply them. But it’s very, very, very worrisome because the contamination is exponential.
“We are approaching 200 cases a day. That’s a lot. I can’t tell people enough that they have to be careful.”
Legault warned Tuesday he might have to act to deal with the five regions before the Easter weekend, which traditionally sparks family gatherings.
“We are seeing the problem is not the rules in place, but the people who do not follow them,” Legault said at a pandemic news conference. “In Montreal, the situation is stable. These regions are not at the level of Montreal, but there’s a bad tendency, a bad trend.”
On Wednesday, Quebec announced a total of 1,025 new cases for the province, the most in seven weeks. There were nine more deaths. There were 485 hospitalizations, two fewer than a day earlier.
pauthier@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/philipauthier
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