The gradual recovery classes and the back to work 500,000 Quebecers represent a “risky bet”, but necessary, estimates the Dr Horacio Arruda, at the time when Quebec begins its deconfinement.
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“I want to avoid suicides among SME owners, divorces because things are bad and violence against children,” illustrated the national director of public health on Tuesday, as the Legault government presented its plan to reopen businesses. The day before, Quebec announced its calendar for voluntary return to school starting May 11.
Retail stores with storefronts will be able to open their doors as of May 4 outside of Greater Montreal, and May 11 in the greater Montreal region. Also on May 11, construction other than residential may restart and the manufacturing companies will gradually resume their activities.
However, shopping centers and personal care companies (optometrist, dentist, hairdresser, etc.) remain closed indefinitely.
“We are talking about roughly 500,000 people, possibly, who could return to work out of the 1.2 million who are off work. So you have to go sequentially, “said Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon.
Find balance
After a month and a half of confinement, public health wants to allow Quebecers to return to work, while making sure to “minimize” the risks. “It is clear, if you allow me that there will be an increase in transmissions in the community, as soon as we reopen a little, and that there could even be people who die,” admitted Dr Horacio Arruda.
“We know, it’s a risky bet,” he added. But since the virus “is here for a long time”, it is a question of finding a balance, argues Dr Arruda. Moreover, he ensures that he will not hesitate to recommend confinement again if the population does not comply with the instructions.
Doubts about collective immunity
Quebec, on the other hand, no longer advocates the strategy of collective immunity, which Prime Minister François Legault defended last week. “When you understand the concept of natural immunity better, it becomes less scary to reopen gradually. It is even becoming desirable for the health of our society, ”he said Thursday.
But since then, the World Health Organization, the federal government and the Quebec National Institute of Public Health have spoken out against this approach. “We say that it is a possibility, but that is not … we have no proof that it works,” said Mr. Legault Tuesday.
No evening with friends
Despite these gradual returns to normal life, gatherings in residences or on private land remain prohibited. The revival of the economy is necessary to “have income to be able to afford services”, argues François Legault.
“But we can do without family parties for a while,” he adds, while saying that he understands that “people are eager to find each other”.
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