Date of publication: April 14, 2022 • 56 minutes ago • 13 minutes of reading Prime Minister François Lego wears a mask after a press conference in Montreal on January 13, 2022. Photo by John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette

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Updated all day on Thursday 14 April. Questions / Comments: [email protected]

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Opinion: This is not the time to disappoint COVID Make access to COVID-19 boosters “excessive”, experts say Quebec will remove the mask order if hospitalizations are reduced to two weeks, says Legault 11% fewer students from Quebec were absent this week due to COVID Ford of Ontario says it will extend other mask orders if recommended by top doctor Quebec health officials apologize for posting a link to a porn site on Twitter instead of informing the government about COVID Accused convoy protest organizer Pat King faces new charges CAQ MNA applauds ministers as they vote against calling for public inquiry into thousands of CHSLD deaths Quebec reports 26 deaths as hospitalizations reach two-month high Health Canada authorizes Evusheld to prevent COVID in immunocompromised adults and children Quebec Guide: Learning to live with COVID Seniors should not take “unnecessary risks” during the holidays this weekend, says Dubé COVID cases worldwide exceed 500 million as Omicron’s BA.2 variant increases Keep the mask in order until COVID and flu conditions improve – Drouin With the Easter weekend coming in the middle of a sixth wave, how should the Quebec celebrate? Opinion: Quebec residents move to sixth wave with less safety net Existing COVID vaccines will not provide herd immunity, but that does not mean they fail Quebec COVID guide: Vaccinations, tests Sign up for our free nightly coronavirus newsletter

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16:00

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I will be back tomorrow with another live blog. In the meantime, you can watch all of our coverage via the coronavirus page. My previous live blogs about COVID-19 are available here. 3:30 p.m.

Opinion: This is not the time to disappoint COVID

“I can not help but feel that people live on two different planets: those who are carelessly concentrated in the world and others who continue to show plenty of attention.” Read the latest column by Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed. 3:20 p.m.

Make access to COVID-19 boosters “excessive”, experts say

From the Canadian Press: Easier access to vaccine boosters for COVID-19 could be one way to address the high incidence rates of Canadians getting vaccinated, say public health and immunology experts.

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Matthew Miller, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University, said some may see the lifting of public health measures across the country as a sign that they no longer need to be so careful about COVID-19 contamination. . “The idea that we have overcome the worst things I think leads to a certain degree of apathy,” Miller said. “I think this is also exacerbated by the fact that there is a significant proportion of people in the population (who) do not hesitate to get vaccinated, but they are also not very enthusiastic about vaccination.” He said there had been a sharp rise in vaccination rates in Canada when governments introduced vaccination orders against COVID-19. “Now that these restrictions have been lifted and have not been implemented in third installments, I think the incentive has just been reduced,” Miller said.

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“There is a certain section of the population that I just think is inactive and, without applying this point of pressure, they are simply not interested in making every effort to get vaccinated, even though they are willing in the first place.” He said governments do not always have to resort to mandates to increase absorption of vaccination rates. The answer may be to remove the barriers for some people. “You have to make it extremely convenient for people, because people who are enthusiastic about vaccines have made their third shot,” Miller said. “People who do not yet have boosters do not have them for a complicated (mix) of reasons, but people who are more easily caught; they are the ones for whom the only thing that prevents them from getting them is a little apathy.”

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Figures from the federal government show that approximately 57 percent of Canadians aged 18 and over are fully vaccinated with an additional dose, while 47 percent of the total population has received COVID-19 booster. Dr. Theresa Tam, the national head of public health, urged Canadians 18 and older to step up their support because of the recent rise in COVID-19 cases due to the more contagious BA. 2 variant. 3:10 p.m.

Quebec will remove the mask order if hospitalizations are reduced to two weeks, says Legault

At a press conference in Lac-Mégantic today, Prime Minister François Legault was asked if Quebec would extend its mandate in public until May. “The predictions I have seen – and remain projections with a lot of uncertainty – show that there will be an increase (in hospitalization) for another two weeks and then we will start to see a decline.

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He added: “If we are in decline, we will not have to extend (the mandate of the mask), but we examine it daily and follow the recommendations of the public health for the last two years.” Masks are the only remaining pandemic in Quebec. Quebec initially said it would lift the mask mandate in all public places except public transportation in mid-April. With imports rising, it shifted its expiration date to the end of April. The number of COVID-19 patients in Quebec hospitals is currently at its highest level since Feb. 11, with a provincial government health research institute predicting growth will accelerate in the coming days. On Wednesday, Dr. Luc Boileau, Quebec’s interim director of public health, said some hospital procedures were being canceled as the county health system dealt with a crash of coronavirus-positive patients.

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Watch the Legault press conference: Sorry, but this video failed to load.

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2:35 p.m.

11% fewer students from Quebec were absent this week due to COVID

The number of Quebec students absent due to COVID-19 dropped by 11 percent this week. The decline comes after a month of increases. A total of 28,309 students were absent on Tuesday, compared to 31,825 a week earlier, according to an analysis provided by the Ministry of Education. Of the 28,309 absent this week, 18,420 were elementary school students, with 9,127 from high school and 762 in adult education. One week earlier, 18,836 primary school students did not attend school due to COVID, along with 12,125 high school students and 864 adults. There has been a big drop in the number of distance learning courses. On Tuesday, students from 37 classes were learning virtually, compared to 112 a week earlier.

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The number of teachers absent due to COVID also decreased. 2,092 were absent on Tuesday. That compares with 1,848 last week. 2:20 p.m.

From the Canadian Press: The Ontario prime minister says he would have “no problem” extending the rest of the mask orders beyond the end of the month if recommended by the province’s top doctor. Prime Minister Doug Ford made the remarks Thursday in an irrelevant press conference in Toronto. The province has lifted mask orders in most environments other than those considered high-risk, such as long-term care homes, hospitals and public transportation. The concealment requirements for these settings are due to expire on April 27, but Dr. Kieran Moore, the county’s top doctor, said he was considering extending them amid the latest wave of COVID-19 cases.

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Ford says he would accept this recommendation if Moore does, because he wants to protect vulnerable people. Also Thursday, Ontario pandemic advisers say sewage signals suggest COVID-19 transmission in the province may have peaked, but it is unclear where the trend is heading. The Ontario COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Board shared its latest modeling for the disease on Thursday. The panel says it is unclear whether the apparent peak in cases during the sixth wave will be followed by an increase, decrease or continuous plateau after the long weekend. The model suggests that hospitalizations and ICU admissions will continue to rise, but are unlikely to reach levels seen earlier this year during the fifth wave of the pandemic.

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