drouin expects to see an increase in cases in the montreal area over the next couple of weeks.
“we’re following the situation closely,” she said. “we would have liked for everyone to be protected with the vaccine (by now), but the number of outbreaks linked to the variant has led us to reconsider. we’re clearly facing a fourth wave, just like in april we were facing a third wave, and we took serious measures and managed to avoid it; this one, we won’t avoid.”
recent projection models for the virus in montreal show “a rise of cases that is significant and is going to continue in the next couple of weeks,” drouin said, adding that a rise in hospitalizations and intensive care admissions is also expected over the same period.
while the situation in montreal remains under control for the time being, new safety regulations could be imposed if that changes.
“if we can’t control the progress of the fourth wave, we’ll see if we have to go back to (population control) measures,” drouin said, “for example by increasing limits on the number of people who can attend an event, a play, go to a restaurant or a show.
“we want to maintain (current, more permissive) measures so these places can stay open, even though we’re in a fourth wave. but if we can’t control the outbreaks in those settings, we will have to close or reduce the number of people who can attend places of worship, cinemas and restaurants. we’ll see, but at the time, it’s not what we would like to do. we would like to use the vaccine passport, with the same measures we had in the summer.”