1) As the daily number of #COVID19 infections crossed the thousand-case threshold in Quebec on Friday — the highest since the peak of the first wave — it’s clear the province is now fighting a multi-front war on the #pandemic. In this thread, I will elaborate on those fronts.
2) Let’s start with a surge in #COVID19 outbreaks in long-term care centres (CHSLDs) and seniors’ residences (RPAs) across the province. Clusters have been identified in more than 30 such facilities, with two dozen infections confirmed in the past 24 hours among the elderly.
3) The hardest-hit nursing homes are in Chaudière-Appalaches, the Capitale-Nationale, Outaouais and the Gaspé — regions largely spared during the #pandemic’s first wave. Eldercare centres have also been affected in the Eastern Townships, the Laurentians, Laval and Montreal.
4) The next front in this war are the province’s schools. The number of classes shuttered due to #COVID19 rose to 674 Thursday from 631 day before. What’s more, another 80 students and 24 school employees tested positive for the #coronavirus just on Oct. 1. See the chart below. 
5) Public health authorities didn’t have to contend with outbreaks in both CHSLDs and schools during the first wave. Businesses were locked down until mid-May, but clusters of cases are now erupting mostly in the workplace, yet another front in this war.
6) Meanwhile, health resources are spread thin. More than 800 nurses have quit Montreal’s hospitals. Surgeons are tackling a backlog of more than 92,000 operations. Some cancer patients are facing delays in treatment. ER overcrowding is now a Quebec-wide problem. (See below).
7) Doctors are treating more #COVID19 patients than in recent weeks, with a major outbreak hitting a Quebec City cardiac hospital. In the past seven days, the province has recorded a net increase of 103 hospitalizations. Deaths are on the upswing, too: seven were declared Friday.
8) Contact tracing has become a monumental task for exhausted public-health investigators. The province is carrying out more than double the number of daily #COVID19 screening tests than during the first wave. Yet this is just the start of the second wave.
9) As for Montreal, long the epicenter of the #pandemic, #COVID19 is not only flaring up in the centre of the city, but in the north end, the east end, and now on the West Island, according to the chart below. Transmission is occurring mostly at the community level.
10) The #pandemic’s speed in Montreal is dizzying. On Sept. 11, the metropolis observed a rolling seven-day average of 25.3 cases per million population. On Friday, just three weeks later, that rate soared to 147.02 cases per million. See the chart below.
11) Montreal added one #COVID19 fatality to a death toll that's climbed to 3,482. Perhaps for all these reasons, Premier François Legault said he will announce new restrictions for schools and sports on Monday. End of thread. Please practice #SocialDistancing and wear a mask.
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