The vaccine passport has proven itself, according to the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé. Quebec will therefore proceed with its gradual withdrawal by March 14.
The minister made the announcement on Tuesday afternoon in Quebec. Due to a favorable epidemiological situation, “the passport is less and less necessary”, noted the elected CAQ at a press conference.
“The epidemiological outlook is in the right direction. The situation is improving, ”added the acting national director of public health, Luc Boileau, who issued an opinion Monday evening after receiving new data. “We didn’t feel comfortable making the recommendation the day before yesterday,” he said.
The collection of the QR code pass will be done in stages. As of Wednesday, it will disappear from the branches of the Société des alcools du Québec and the Société québécoise du cannabis du Québec. Big-box stores will no longer have to require it either. Then, on February 21, it will no longer be requested in places of worship and for funeral ceremonies.
From March 14, unvaccinated people will be able to visit restaurants, bars and resources for the elderly without restriction. Travelers will have to keep it pending a revision of the federal instructions.
Quebec says it is ready to relaunch the vaccine tool if the epidemiological situation worsens. “So keep it on your phone,” Mr. Dubé suggested. Quebec is not immune to a sixth wave, he noted. Especially since the BA.2 variant, “more contagious”, now represents 10% to 15% of the positive cases identified in Montreal.
As for the mask, Public Health does not plan to request its removal before March 14. “For the moment, the signals we have are not sufficient to bring us to that side”, argued the Dr Boileau.
Less useful?
Last week, Minister Dubé said he wanted to wait “at least until mid-March” to ax the vaccine passport. “Which allows us to do the deconfinement […]it is the space in the hospitals that we have created, but also the fact of having a vaccination passport and the mask”, he said on Tuesday, adding that the passport was “here to stay”.
“The vaccine passport, it is appropriate. He has been with us for more than 150 days already and he has shown his usefulness, ”says Mr. Dubé today, according to whom nearly 600,000 Quebecers have been sent to vaccination centers thanks to the vaccination measure.
Quebec will not make everyone happy by deconfining so much. The National Institute of Public Health of Quebec, which regularly conducts surveys of Quebecers to measure their behavior with regard to health measures, notes that almost a third of them find that the relaxations are done too quickly.
“It’s about 30% of people who are worried, fearful, said Ève Dubé, scientific advisor and medical anthropologist at the INSPQ, specialist in vaccine hesitation. They want the mask to remain compulsory, that the vaccine passport be extended to other places. According to her, 30% are also tired or opposed to sanitary measures.
Tuesday, Christian Dubé agreed “that there are many Quebecers who appreciate the feeling of protection of the passport”. However, its effectiveness has diminished over time, and especially with the arrival of the Omicron variant, observed Luc Boileau.
“Before Omicron, the vaccine passport: very useful. People are in restaurants, they know that others have it, and there is a very strong protection against contagion, he explained. During Omicron, this protection has gone down against contagion. »
Christian Dubé assures not to relax the restrictions to please Quebec voters or to respond to anti-sanitary measures demonstrators. “For me, there is no connection with the political environment,” he said. In Canada, several provinces have decided to drop the equivalent of the vaccine passport. On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced his intentions to lift vaccine pass restrictions on the 1is mars.
With Marie-Eve Cousineau
First doses drop by drop
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