Thread by @Aaron_Derfel

1) Health Minister Christian Dubé admitted Tuesday Quebec is having a hard time retracing #COVID19 contacts as the province enters a second wave in the #pandemic. In this thread, I will appeal to the government to authorize the use of Health Canada's COVID Alert notification app.

2) An online consultation commissioned by the government found that 77% of Quebecers believed such an app would be useful, and 75% said they would install it on their smart phones. Yet despite the overwhelming public approval, the government won’t use it.

3) Ontario Health Minister Doug Ford has urged neighboring Quebec to authorize the app. Federal health minister Patty Hajdu has asked Quebec to use it. Quebecers want the app. Yet on Tuesday, even as Dubé declared Laval and the Outaouais to be orange zones, he ruled out using it.

4) During his news conference, Dubé cited disapproval by the opposition parties to the idea, and mentioned that the government might want to develop its own made-in-Quebec app. But given the urgency of the second wave, why not let Quebecers download COVID Alert in the meantime?

5) Any tool that can help stem the spread of the contagious #coronavirus is beneficial. Even some critics who initially questioned the app’s effectiveness have said it could come in handy during a resurgence, which in fact, is now occurring throughout the province.

6) The province is so short of epidemiological staff to retrace contacts that Dubé appealed to retired cops to get involved, noting their experience in law enforcement could be helpful. But there is already a contact-tracing app that can be of assistance, so why not use it?

7) The stakes couldn’t be higher. Dubé revealed the province is beset by 250 active #COVID19 outbreaks, up by an astonishing 75 in just the past two days. The province reported a spike of 20 hospitalizations, an increase not observed since May 13, during the first wave.

8) Meanwhile, the metropolis posted 142 new #COVID19 cases Tuesday. Please view the jagged but rising orange line in the chart below. Montreal’s seven-day rolling average is 61.11 cases per million population, which is taking place amid at least 53 active outbreaks.

9) At the neighborhood level, the densely populated very centre of Montreal — Côte-des-Neiges, downtown and Parc-Extension — have grabbed the lion’s share of new #COVID19 cases for at least the past three days. (See the chart below.) If this keeps up, who knows what to expect?

10) The health minister, @cdube_sante, acknowledged Quebec’s health care workers are tired and short-staffed. Among those exhausted are emergency-room nurses. See the ER chart below. So why not let Quebecers themselves contribute by authorizing use of COVID Alert? End of thread.