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1/25. THREAD. This past week was painful, stressful and heartbreaking for people across #Montréal and #Québec. This thread chronologically walks through one week of news. Begin. #polqc #polmtl #covid19 #mtlmoments
2/25. @jonmontpetit’s analysis provides important context. Ontario sought to establish public health conditions before setting dates for reopening, he writes. Conversely, Québec set a fixed timeline, striving to stick to the plan and meet timeline targets. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/covid-quebec-reopening-coronavirus-public-health-1.5560258
3/25. Monday, May 4. Montréal public health officer, Dr. Mylène Drouin, acknowledged “we’re not seeing a decrease in the epidemiological curve.” Québec public health director Dr. Arruda Horacio conceded, “we are not going down as we thought we would go.” #polqc #polmtl #covid19
4/25. Then there was @CityHallReport's must-read piece about a fax machine. “Unfortunately, up to now, we’ve been working with fax,” said Paul Le Guerrier, a physician in the infectious disease control unit of the Montréal public health department. #polmtl https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/using-a-fax-machine-the-painstaking-work-of-contact-tracers/wcm/0c6e354e-6bca-4278-a3c1-c117a0c1eece/
5/25. Total home deaths (including non-COVID cases) surged 21% in Montréal from the start of the pandemic, @Aaron_Derfel wrote in his solid update. Yes, eldercare and nursing homes, but community-level transmission and death is occuring. #polmtl #covid19 https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/analysis-deaths-at-home-surge-by-21-per-cent-in-montreal-and-laval-during-pandemic/wcm/0ee1551d-eeb1-4a26-aa05-647bc183c093/?fbclid=IwAR2Z7AxP55KP-AVbcd4b4hs0KSBo-SfsJ9FWmnFhE0zdf3PSWIItLZ38GMY
6/25. News early this week of a #COVID19 outbreak in Québec #daycare centre: 12 children, 4 staff test positive, a 50% infection rate as of that last report. Original news piece here. #polqc https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2020/05/05/eclosion-de-cas-dans-un-service-de-garde-durgence?fbclid=IwAR0EF5oJW3XrsDSynUqpS55xf1YIN-qUd0qLk1sUMpf6FqKpVwgLESW-8og
7/25. Military here and we still face labour shortages. We were recently short 9,000 healthcare workers in the Québec network. On Tuesday, Legault said we were short 11,000 personnel, “the bulk of them missing from long-term care homes,” @CBCMontreal’s @katemckenna8 reported.
8/25. @seleross’s report that “Federal Training Centre” prison in Laval has worst #COVID19 outbreak among Québec federal prisons, with 96 positive tests and 63 active cases. A prisoner’s hunger strike at Bordeaux prison too ( https://www.noprisons.ca/ ). https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/a-second-inmate-in-a-canadian-federal-prison-has-died-of-covid-19-1.4926031
9/25. The next handful of posts are from Wednesday alone. “The situation in #Montreal is worrying,” Quebec’s public-health director, Dr. Arruda, said at Wednesday’s briefing. The data agrees. “Quebec's epidemic curve is not looking great,” @picardonhealth. https://twitter.com/picardonhealth/status/1258155744437964809
10/25. @BasemBoshra reported that, after appeals from racialized community groups, #Québec will start compiling race and class data. Will be important to see Montreal data. Look at place-based distribution (source: @CBCMontreal: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/covid-19-testing-montreal-masks-1.5561945).
11/25. Here’s a piece on Montreal-Nord. Other boroughs a concern too. Here’s journalist @jkdamours in @vicecanada with a human snapshot of Montreal-Nord. h/t @WillProsper @Guillaume__H @mtlnordrepublik @bochramanai. #polmtl #polqc #covid19. Worth a read: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/v7g4k3/inside-canada-coronavirus-epicentre-montreal-nord
12/25. 112 deaths and 910 positive cases confirmed in Wednesday provincial update, @FannyLevesque reported. https://www.lapresse.ca/covid-19/202005/06/01-5272401-112-nouveaux-deces-au-quebec-un-plan-daction-pour-la-sante-mentale.php. Also emerging tensions between federal and provincial government, reports @ChrisGNardi in well-sourced piece: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/why-would-he-pick-a-fight-with-us-covid-19-raises-tensions-between-trudeau-government-and-quebec
13/25. @jonmontpetit, @Aaron_Derfel and others report #Montreal hospitals are short on space and patients being sent elsewhere as a result (some as far as 150km away+/- in Trois-Rivieres. #polqc #polmtl #covid19 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-hospitals-space-covid-19-1.5558118
14/25. @katemckenna8's solid piece about transmission between institutions by caregivers striving, or “forced,” to fill system gaps. There is debate about differences between the B.C. and Québec pandemic response. Kate identifies a clear difference here. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-covid-cross-contamination-1.5556946
15/25. @vestevie @benshingler with vital insights: temp agencies with limited government oversight hire precarious, underpaid workers whose refugee status has been rejected once or twice. They are now on the frontline and getting sick for us - for all of Québec.
16/25. The news piece notes precarious migrant workers with rejected refugee claims are also having to rotate to more than one clinical site. This was being done prior to the pandemic in order to make financial ends meet. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-chsld-asylum-seekers-1.5559354
17/25. @DrSamirSinha reports Canada has highest mortality rate in care homes among 14 developed countries. See Denmark where 36% of spending on services in buildings like nursing homes, whereas 64% is on home and community-based care (OECD report, 2017). https://twitter.com/DrSamirSinha/status/1257382809473335297
18/25. @Aaron_Derfel wrote, “authorities cannot afford to drop their guard in Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, where more than 1,400 people have contracted COVID-19.” Deaths were a few times in the daily-double digits. Other potential blind spots? #polmtl https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/analysis-why-is-the-covid-19-death-rate-soaring-in-hochelaga-maisonneuve/wcm/3eed96f9-e2c7-417e-877c-1a0402e2edab/
19/25. Indigenous leaders raising concern about case-rise in Indigenous communities+resource shortages. Follow @tfennario @sentimtl @SylvieAmbroise @Kanhehsiio. Others to follow for Indigenous perspectives on pandemic in Montréal and Québec? Please tag. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-first-nation-metis-inuit-leaders-concerned-about-indigenous-covid-1-2/
20/25. Daycare workers expressing concern about labour shortages in daycares as Phase 1 begins. “There was a shortage of educators for five years before the pandemic,” one source says ( https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/staffing-a-concern-for-daycares-as-progressive-openings-approach/). This piece by @SophMathieu worth a read: https://theconversation.com/les-educatrices-en-services-de-garde-les-anges-oublies-137742
21/25. The Jewish “has been ordered by the Quebec health ministry to clear out its in-patient psychiatric ward to make way for an influx of non-violent psychiatric patients infected with #COVID19,” @Aaron_Derfel reported Friday. #polqc #polmtl https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/analysis-jewish-general-chum-to-treat-overflow-of-covid-19-psychiatric-patients/wcm/33ff306b-3921-4d90-af1e-12a2155da486/
22/25. In Feb, Qué recorded lowest unemployment since in 1976 (4.5%), @jonmontpetit notes. Now at 17%, highest ever recorded and highest of provinces, reports @benshingler of @CBCMontreal: https://cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-record-job-losses-april-1.5561165 Try this interactive @MilesCorak dashboard: https://milescorak.shinyapps.io/Canadas-Labour-Market-Dashboard/
23/25. As the week came to an end, independent data was released on case and mortality projections in #Quebec and #Montreal. I dare not comment on the report. That is best left to the research team themselves. PDF: http://www.marc-brisson.net/covid19-response/Epidemiologie-et-modelisation-evolution-COVID-19-au-Quebec_7-mai.pdf
24/25. That is sample of one week. I did not have room to fit everything in one thread. What news/data am I missing? Please comment. 112 deaths Wednesday in Qué alone is not just a number. These were people with stories to tell, smiles to share. This pandemic is an awful tragedy.
25/25. An eternal optimist, my week highlight was this vital reminder: “The health of anyone, anywhere, is important to the health of everyone, everywhere” - Dr. Tim Evans, Director, McGill School of Population and Global Health. Quote from @IHSE_McGill meeting, May 7, 2020. End.
