Avoid international travel and large private gatherings, Dubé cautions

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With the first case of the Omicron variant identified in Quebec and more emerging cases around the world, Health Minister Christian Dubé asked Quebecers who are thinking of traveling outside the country to reconsider their plans, reminding everyone residents avoiding private gatherings of more than 10 people.

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It will likely take two weeks before decisions are made on whether the spread of this new variant of COVID-19 will lead to tighter restrictions in Quebec, Dubé said. This is the amount of time that federal government estimates take to determine if the variant is resistant to current vaccines and if it is more transmissible or dangerous than other versions.

“For those who chose not to get vaccinated for reason X, I think the new variant is a good reason to do so,” Dubé said.

As of Monday, 115 travelers arriving in Quebec from the seven southern African countries have been identified on Canada’s Omicron watch list. They will have to be tested and quarantined for two weeks from the date of their arrival in Canada.

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“We are asking Quebecers who travel internationally or who plan to do so to be extremely careful,” Dubé said at a news conference on COVID-19 on Monday in Montreal. “We have seen in the past that travel restrictions can change very quickly.” Those restrictions could soon expand beyond the seven countries currently listed to include all international locations, Dubé said, including the United States.

“We suggest that you avoid all non-essential travel for now.”

At the same time, Dubé stressed that regulations limiting home or private gatherings and office parties to no more than 10 people must be respected, because they are a known source of outbreaks. Large crowds are still allowed in bars, restaurants and places like the Bell Center because people must show proof of vaccination to enter, and few outbreaks have been linked to those types of venues, he said.

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“We are hoping that this is behind us, but we see with sadness that it is not like that,” he said. “Therefore, you cannot rent a chalet for your office party or have a big gathering at the farmhouse. The rule is 10 people. “

It’s too early to tell if those rules will change for vacation family gatherings during the Christmas season.

There were 6,300 COVID-19 cases detected in Quebec during the last week, Dubé said. Of those, more than half came from unvaccinated people, mainly children in the age range of five to 11 years who only recently became eligible for a vaccine. More than a third of eligible children in the province, 200,000 of them, have been vaccinated or made an appointment to do so, which Dubé said bodes well for the future of Quebec.

However, cases increased in the province last week, topping an average of more than 900 per day. Quebec’s public health director Horacio Arruda said the increase was expected due to cold weather forcing more people to stay indoors. Hospitalizations have increased slightly, from 200 cases last week to 220 on Monday due to the increase in cases, but the number is still under control, Arruda said.

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There is frustration over the slow uptake of third-dose booster vaccines administered in the province, Dubé said, with about 65 percent of those eligible receiving their vaccine. But he said the government is still studying whether that delay is due to the fact that many have not reached the required six-month delay between the second and third doses.

When asked why booster shots are not being offered to more people (currently, only people over 70 and with health problems can apply), Arruda said the government wants to follow the same protocol it did with the first and second doses of the vaccine, giving priority to the elderly. , health workers and other most vulnerable members of the population first.

Noting that Ontario has asked the federal government to begin testing all international travelers for the new variant, Dubé said Quebec is considering taking the same step. But he cautioned that international airports will need to have the equipment to PCR all incoming passengers in place first, or risk endless lines.

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Ontario is investigating four more possible cases of the Omicron variant, and the province’s chief physician said more are likely to be detected after two initial cases are confirmed over the weekend.

Dr. Kieran Moore said that two of the potential cases are in the Hamilton area and two in Ottawa. That is in addition to two confirmed cases in Ottawa announced on Sunday: Canada’s first known cases of the COVID-19 mutation declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organization on Friday.

Moore said the first cases of Omicron in Canada, in two people who had recently been to Nigeria, were first tested for the virus in Montreal when they arrived in the country.

The first known case from Quebec was also detected in a woman traveling from Nigeria.

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People who recently arrived in Canada from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe are eligible for COVID-19 testing and must be quarantined. The federal government has also closed its borders to visitors from those countries.

As news of a new variant spread in Canada, researchers at Polytechnique Montréal University announced that funding for wastewater sampling, which can detect levels of COVID-19 circulating in society, would not be expanded. as well as the presence of new variants. Sarah Dorner, a professor at the university who has been helping to conduct sewage sampling since March 2020 together with McGill University and other institutions, said the Quebec government was not extending funding for the pilot project that took daily samples from the Montreal sewage plant to detect levels of coronavirus. .

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“Our project ends at the end of December,” he said. “Public health is no longer interested.”

The sampling, carried out by the scientific community, is an important “independent confirmation of whether everything is really being caught,” he said. “And of course, with the new variants of concern, it’s nice to have samples that you can send in for sequencing,” especially since the Quebec public health department does not screen all COVID-19 tests for new variants.

Sewage sampling in the Montreal area in March 2020 indicated a rapid increase in the prevalence of COVID-19 in the region, while public health officials were still downplaying the severity of the virus, Dorner said. “At the end of March, it went up really fast and you could see it in the sewage.”

Analyzing wastewater is not expensive, Dorner added, as the scientific process has already been established. At this point, two research assistants working part-time are required to collect samples once a day from the Montreal wastewater plant. A similar program in Ottawa has been running during the pandemic and is well funded by the Ontario government, Dorner noted.

More details to come.

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