Montreal and Quebec City are in the orange zone?! Yikes! - By Felicia
Seriously? I’m sorry. I posted an article a few minutes ago and now I have to update it?! Come on. This COVID crisis is spreading faster than I can write… Let me tell you all about it.
Montreal and Quebec City’s residents are being urged to scale back their social activities and face the latest restrictions while the provincial government tries to curb a rapid increase of COVID-19 cases.
Quebec's two largest cities, Montreal and Quebec City, are going to be under "orange alert" beginning at midnight.
Uh-oh.
That is the second-highest alert level under the province's system for categorizing the danger posed by the coronavirus, as shown in the photo.
Quebec reported 427 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday and 462 new cases today. I’ll do the math for you: that’s a daily increase of 35 new cases. The province hasn't seen daily increases this big since May.
Whoa.
Since Montreal and Quebec City are now in the orange, here are the new rules.
The maximum number of individuals allowed at a personal gathering has been reduced from 10 to 6. If a gathering is proscribed to members of two different families, then it can exceed the six-person maximum.
Bars and restaurants will stop serving alcohol at 11 p.m. and must close at midnight. A maximum of six people are allowed per table.
A maximum of 25 people are going to be allowed to come to events like weddings, barbecues, etc. In settings that involve sitting and not a lot of talking, like movie theatres or concert halls, the 250-person limit remains in place.
It was also announced that the regions of Lanaudière and Laurentides have been upgraded from green to yellow.
Christian Dubé also specified that while the island of Montreal has been raised to a moderate alert, Laval and the Montérégie region remain yellow. Yup, Montreal is definitely not out of the woods…
He also asked that people living in orange zones refrain from getting tested as a precaution. I think that’s a very wise choice, and a less painful one too :)
Public Health Director Dr. Horacio Arruda added that this change from yellow to orange will not affect schools or extra-curricular activities in the province.