Eight regions of Quebec are moved into the yellow warning territory, up from four.
The next step -- orange -- would mean focused closures.
Premier François Legault calls the situation critical, appeals to Quebeckers' "sense of solidarity."

The cases are spreading in the community, largely through social gatherings. The premier asks Quebeckers to limit social gatherings as much as possible.

Health Minister Christian Dubé said while deaths are low and hospitalizations only rising slowly the spike in cases is putting the health system in a fragile state.

Mr. Dubé says people have a mistaken impression what community spread means. It doesn't mean catching it from a stranger on the street. It means catching it from your friends, at your house, when your guard is down.

"Our biggest problem right now is private parties."

MR. Dubé is giving examples.

South of Montreal, there was a dinner party in a resto with 17 people. 31 cases have grown from that party. They have to find and test 330 people who were at the restaurant.
"Imagine the workload."

A BBQ south of Montreal: No masks, no distancing, five cases.

South of Quebec City: A hairdresser who knew she was contagious cut hair for 15 people in six seniors' homes.

Montreal: 20-something cases in seniors homes.

A new measure announced: No selling food at bars after midnight. Hmm.

Several regions are close to going into Orange, which would means smaller groups in weddings etc., as well as private gatherings (from 10 to 6), bar closures, restaurants going back to takeout only.

The health minister is particularly concerned about seniors' residents (known as RPAs, not to be confused with nursing home CHSLDs). One new measure there: Masks required in common areas.

Dr. Horacio Arruda, director of public health, warns that if a second wave really takes off it will make the first wave look like "petite bière." (Small potatoes.)

Believe the story about the hair dresser was a Journal scoop. Story says the infections were "not intentional." So she was contagious but thought it was a cold? Hope somebody asks. https://www.journaldequebec.com/2020/09/14/33-cas-positifs-dans-une-residence-pour-aines-de-thetford-mines-1

Mr. Dubé points out Quebec is still not at the stage of exponential growth it was in the spring. Dr. Arruda adds that the spring was driven by nursing homes and there was very little community spread. The province can still get things under control.

Dr. Arruda: "It's certain some areas will be in orange soon. Let's not fall into dark orange or red."

Mr. Legault explains the delay in testing saying they've had to ramp up capacity rapidly in areas that had little trouble in the spring. It's an organizational challenge.

Mr. Dubé adds that he is very unhappy with this state of affairs. Gets into the weeds on notifications. Oh, apparently there's still a supply problem.

Slightly off topic: The premier is asked a question about janitors working under the table at nursing homes.

Premier: These janitors work for companies that in turn were hired by other companies to clean the nursing homes.

Whatever happened to posting a job and hiring someone.

I was just thinking parts of Quebec that skated away relatively unscathed in the spring are having a hard time adjusting to pandemic reality.

Mr. Dubé says despite Montreal's yellow downgrade, the city has performed well. The city was hit hard, people take it seriously.

Hardly any questions about schools, if anyone is wondering.

As of Friday, 296 students and 81 school staff were infected with COVID-19 in 223 schools. 154 classes were sent home for isolation. It's not clear how many outbreaks with spread within classes have taken place. https://cdn-contenu.quebec.ca/cdn-contenu/adm/min/education/publications-adm/covid-19/reseauScolaire_faitsSaillants.pdf?1600113652

The parent-run site @CovidEcoles which compiles school COVID-19 notices and is several days ahead of the official stats says 307 schools, or about 10 % of the total, have cases. https://www.covidecolesquebec.org/liste-alphabtique

One correction: The government numbers go up to Monday.

I see the hairdresser bit has everyone's attention. While this does seem to be the most egregious example, the minister did point to several other instances where people who knew they had infections had gone about their business.

Overall the picture today is of regions of Quebec that just haven't had to take the pandemic seriously and need to make some major adjustments quickly.

Mylène Drouin, the Montreal director of public health, is giving her update. Reiterates that private parties are the big problem. Contact tracing is taking much longer because people often have 80 contacts instead of 10 or 20 like before.

Situation in Montreal schools:
125 schools with at least one case.
Seven outbreaks with more than one case. All described as under control.

24 workplace outbreaks.

3 small outbreaks "well controlled" in seniors' homes, Dr. Drouin says.