February 11, 2021 | News

February 11, 2021 – Provincial government update on the COVID-19 pandemic

Here is an update on recent decisions and actions by the Québec government in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Red zones and curfew extended to March 8 or 15

Québec Premier François Legault indicated that the red zones and the curfew could be extended to March 8 or 15 in order to counter an increase in community spread during spring break.

The curfew has already been extended until February 21.

Respecting family bubbles

The government considers that the most important thing in preparation for the spring break will be to respect family bubbles.

The premier specified that if a family goes to its cottage, it should be the only family there. “We will be asking the police to keep an eye on this,” he said, adding that this is more important than setting up inter-regional roadblocks.

Possible closure of the border with Ontario

Mr. Legault stated that, similarly, travel between Ontario and Québec might be restricted during spring break to prevent the spread of the new COVID-19 variants, which are of great concern to Public Health authorities.

The high contagion rates of these new variants is what is informing this scenario, said Mr. Legault, since Québec has only detected 11 cases of variants to date, while there have been 232 in Ontario, 120 in Alberta and 40 in British Columbia.

The premier hypothesized that the higher numbers of cases in the Anglophone provinces could be linked to the fact that are more connections between the United Kingdom and English Canada than with Québec.

“I’m not sure if that’s why. But we’re seeing, based a large number of tests, that for the time being, at least, there are fewer cases in Québec. However, we can’t assume that this will still be the case in a week, and then in two weeks,” said Premier Legault.