1) Major #COVID19 outbreaks are erupting again in seniors’ residences — mostly in two regions of Quebec — as the province posted on Saturday its highest daily total of new cases since the end of May. In this thread, I'll try to explain the worrisome situation in eldercare homes.

2) Within the last 24 hours, five outbreaks have been declared in seniors’ residences (RPAs) in the Quebec City area and Chaudière-Appalaches. The worst cluster of #COVID19 infections is occurring in the Résidence La Belle Époque, with two dozen new cases in the past day.

3) Please let me make an observation that I’ve noted for a while but will only now make: the #pandemic is now hitting RPA eldercare homes harder than long-term care centres (CHSLDs), where the government has just assigned a massive number of newly-trained orderlies.

4) Given the undeniable resurgence in RPAs, perhaps the government should reassign some of those recently-hired préposés aux bénéficiaires to work in seniors’ residences. In seeking to fix a flagrant problem in the network of CHSLDs, has Quebec ignored a simmering one in RPAs?

5) The outbreaks in seniors’ residences in the Capitale Nationale is taking place as Quebec City’s seven-day average rose to 7.9 #COVID19 cases per 100,000 residents. A region with six cases per 100,000 could be considered an orange zone, according to one government criterion.

6) Chaudière-Appalaches is now witnessing triple the number of daily #COVID19 cases as it did during the first wave of the #pandemic. On Saturday, its rolling seven-day average rose to 5.37 cases per 100,000 residents, and is edging toward the orange zone from yellow.

7) The situation in the RPAs underscores the highly opportunistic nature of the #coronavirus, as it exploits the most vulnerable segments of society: the elderly, the disabled and the poor. The #pandemic highlights how Quebec must stay vigilant in the regions as well as Montreal.

8) Meanwhile in the metropolis, Montreal observed 128 new #COVID19 cases Saturday, more than double from the day before, as the orange line in the chart below shows. The city’s seven-day incidence climbed 50.8 cases per million population.

9) At the neighborhood level, the health district of Côte-des-Neiges, downtown Métro and Parc-Extension reported a dramatic daily increase: 36 cases. But Montreal North and the east-end are also posting big numbers, as the chart below indicates.

10) Justifiably, much attention has focused on school outbreaks this past week, especially in Montreal where one institution had to close for two weeks. But the resurgence in the RPAs shows Quebec may be on the verge of fighting a broadening war in the #pandemic. End of thread.