Quebec’s director of public health, Dr. Horacio Arruda, resigned after serving as the province’s top health official during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arruda submitted his resignation in a letter to Prime Minister Francois Legault on Monday, which the prime minister accepted, according to his office.
In the letter, Arruda said that he did his best to help lead the province’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, but that recent comments on the credibility of his advice and those of his team have “eroded the trust and public adhesion ”.
“In this context, I consider it opportune to offer them the possibility of replacing me before my term expires, at least as director of public health,” Arruda wrote in part.
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However, he continues to defend his work and says that the advice and recommendations he presented were “the best possible” amid “a context of uncertainty and a rapid progression of knowledge.”
Arruda writes that he is happy to continue serving Quebecers in a different role in public health, but wants to give the prime minister a chance to make a final decision.
“Do not see this as my resignation from office, but rather as an offer to reassess the situation, after several waves and in the context of a constantly evolving situation,” the letter says in French.
Arruda had been in the role of director of public health for nearly 12 years, but became one of the most visible faces of the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, which has seen more deaths than any other province, along with some of the the worst public health conditions. measures to help contain the virus.
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Among those measures was a nightly curfew to limit public gatherings, which was reintroduced a day before New Year’s Eve along with a host of other restrictions, as the highly communicable Omicron variant leads to case counts. and record hospitalizations.
As of Monday, more than 2,500 people were in the hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, a new record for the province.
The latest measures, which have been denounced by companies and civil rights groups but praised by health experts as necessary, will expire on January 17 unless the province decides to extend them.
Arruda’s replacement has yet to be announced. Legault’s office said the prime minister will discuss the resignation on Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET.
—With files from Gloria Henríquez
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