Aaron Derfel Profile picture
Sep 28, 2020 10 tweets 5 min read Read on X
1) The Résidence Herron nursing home, where staff deserted the elderly occupants early in the #pandemic last March, went into lockdown again Sunday after an employee tested positive for #COVID19. In this thread, I will examine the impact of the second wave on eldercare centres.
2) Unlike last March, the Herron now has a full complement of staff. None of the residents has tested positive for the #coronavirus, but all are back in their rooms as a precaution. Still, #COVID19 outbreaks have flared up in 18 other eldercare homes in the province.
3) In the past 24 hours alone, a total of two dozen residents of long-term care centres and seniors’ residents have contracted #COVID19 across Quebec: in Laval, Pointe-Claire, Saint-Eustache, Saint-Jérôme, Brossard, La Tuque and in the Gaspé.
4) Small #COVID19 outbreaks are also erupting again in hospitals, too: at the Lakeshore General in Pointe-Claire, at Hôpital du Saint-Sacrement in Quebec City, at the Centre hospitalier régional du Grand-Portage in Rivière-du-Loup and at Hôpital de Granby last week.
5) In contrast with the first wave when schools were locked down, the virus is now spreading in them — with limited precautions in place. Nearly 17% of Quebec’s schools now have at least one student or employee who has tested positive, according to covidecolesquebec.org.
6) Meanwhile, Montreal posted a staggering 375 #COVID19 cases Sunday, up from 272 the day before. The last time the metropolis reported a single-day tally that was higher was in mid-May, just after the peak of the first wave. See the rising orange line in the chart below.
7) Montreal’s rolling seven-day average rose to 113.04 cases per million population from 98.13 the day before. Crossing the 100-case daily threshold means the city could be declared a red zone, but the government has decided to use additional criteria before making that call.
8) At the neighborhood level, the chart below shows that the centre of the city, Montreal North and the east end continue to drive community transmission of the #coronavirus. People in these areas are working-class and can’t afford to stay home.
9) More than six months after the World Health Organization declared #COVID19 a pandemic, 5,825 Quebecers have lost their lives to date. Nearly 72,000 Quebecers have contracted the disease, with many suffering from lingering and debilitating complications.
10) So here we are: Less than three months after the last wave ended, Quebec has now been jolted into a second one, perhaps a year before a vaccine can be widely distributed to Quebecers. Please keep that in mind as you practice #PhysicalDistancing and wear a mask. End of thread.

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More from @Aaron_Derfel

Aug 4, 2025
1) BREAKING: Santé Québec has authorized 246 doctors' requests since April to become "non-participants" of the medicare system — and thus legally allowed to charge patients from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars for services. See my exposé below.
montrealgazette.com/news/health/ar…
2) This accelerated exodus of doctors from the public system to private-for-profit side comes despite the Coalition Avenir Québec government adopting Law 83 last April to try to reverse this trend. But as my investigation shows, it appears that the law still has a huge loophole.
3) That's because Santé Québec was actually given the power to let doctors opt out of medicare. Supporters of medicare are truly dismayed that the new Crown corporation that is in charge of health care in the province has let so many doctors go fully private in so short a period.
Read 11 tweets
Jun 17, 2025
1) BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Record numbers of Quebec heart patients are dying while waiting for their surgery. This crisis has become exacerbated as the newly-created Santé Québec and the provincial health ministry squabble over jurisdiction. My exposé below.👇
montrealgazette.com/news/health/ar…
2) Yet the health ministry appears to be downplaying this crisis, claiming hearts surgeons' warnings amount to a bargaining tactic. The facts show the problem has been growing worse. Nearly two-thirds of heart patients now wait past medically acceptable delays. See below. 👇 Image
3) As the orange line in the chart below indicates, the number of cardiac patients waiting beyond medically acceptable delays is rising, and the blue line shows the number undergoing life-saving operations on time is declining. The chilling result: more and more sudden deaths. Image
Read 4 tweets
Nov 30, 2024
1) Author @GadSaad, who has taken an unpaid leave from Concordia University, has just written this commentary in the New York Post, headlined: "How Montreal became the antisemitism capital of North America." Here are my thoughts on this topic.

nypost.com/2024/11/30/opi…
2) Obviously, it's debatable as to whether Montreal is indeed the antisemitism capital of the continent. As many Jews are painfully aware, antisemitism sadly exists everywhere. But recent events in Montreal have caused many Jews here to feel unsafe.
montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…
3) A friend just sent this text: "Recently, several of my Jewish friends - lifelong Montrealers - have made the difficult decision to leave the city. They’re not leaving for better opportunities or a change of scenery, but because they and their children no longer feel safe...+"
Read 6 tweets
Aug 16, 2024
1) BREAKING: The lengthy #COVID19 summer wave is continuing unabated in Quebec, along with other parts of North America and even around the world. Here in Quebec, it has been associated directly and indirectly with 1,100 hospitalizations for the past 12 days in a row. Image
2) As you can glimpse from the chart below, the #COVID testing positivity rate in Quebec was 20.9 per cent as of Aug. 11, the most recent date available. The trend line suggests the positivity rate has yet to peak. Image
3) Although nowhere near as fatal as it was back in 2020 (when vaccination was unavailable), #COVID this year has nonetheless been linked to 675 deaths, 38.7 per cent of which have occurred in octogenarians. But 30 Quebecers in their 50s have also died from #COVID in 2023-2024. Image
Read 8 tweets
Mar 13, 2024
1) On Tuesday, the Quebec government unveiled its 2024-2025 budget, with the biggest expenditure to be made on health and social services. In this Twitter thread, I assess whether this "Health/Education Priorities" budget lives up to its hype, especially when it comes to seniors.
2) As you can see from the chart below, the lion's share of spending in the budget is for health and social services, pegged at $61.9 billion — up by 4.17% from the year before. In contrast, spending on education — so vital to Quebec's future — will rise 9.35% to $22.3 billion. Image
3) But as far as health and social services is concerned, Tuesday's budget may be indulging in a bit of spin. The chart below states that Quebec will spend an extra $3.7 billion over the next five years to "support a humane and effective organization of health care." Image
Read 9 tweets
Jan 5, 2024
1) "The pandemic is far from over," one of the preeminent experts on #COVID19, Dr. Eric Topol, declared today, Jan. 4, 2024 — three years after the world first learned of a novel virus that was killing people in China. In this thread, I take stock of what's going on in Quebec.
2) "The pandemic is far from over, as evidenced by the rapid rise to global dominance of the JN.1 variant of SARS-CoV-2," Topol noted in a Los Angeles Times op-ed. In Quebec, nearly one in two genetic samples collected was from JN.1 as of two weeks ago. It's likely higher now. Image
3) "Clearly this virus variant, with its plethora of new mutations, has continued its evolution ... for infecting or reinfecting us," Topol added. Although the updated booster is considered 60% protective against hospitalization, only 17% of the Quebec population has taken it.
Read 10 tweets

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