Omicron mutation of the novel coronavirus is relatively new to the region.“We know the BA.2 is in Quebec now,” he said in an interview Tuesday, about the subvariant of Omicron, “so I think we provided a fertile ground for the variant.” Quebec public health experts say province has already entered a sixth wave of COVID-19 And while the transmission rate is high, Bonnier-Viger said it represents a fraction of the reality. “We only test 10 per cent of people with PCR tests right now.”He said he supports the decision to lift many restrictions, including the vaccine passport system, which ended in mid-March.
But he said now is not the time to remove the mask mandate — the last major public health order remaining in the province. Quebec health officials have said mandatory masking will end mid-April at the latest, except on public transportation.“It’s been proven to be an effective measure,” Bonnier-Viger said of masking. “We’ll see where we’ll be in mid-April but if that was next week, for sure we should not remove it.”The situation is worrying but under control, he said, as COVID-19-related hospitalizations remain low.
There were 17 COVID-19 patients in the region’s hospitals on Tuesday, an increase of two in the last 24 hours. Quebec logs 20 new COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations up by nearly 40 Meanwhile, Quebec reported 20 more deaths on Tuesday attributed to COVID-19 and a 38-patient increase in hospitalizations.
Health authorities said 1,153 people were hospitalized with the disease after 135 patients were admitted in the past 24 hours and 97 left hospital.