1) Three weeks after Quebec required high school students to wear masks all day in red zones, Premier François Legault announced Monday Grade 9 students will join those in Grades 10 and 11 in learning online at home one out of two days. In this thread, I'll examine this measure.
2) Legault held his news conference at 5 p.m. after the Education Ministry released its latest statistics revealing 52 more #COVID19 cases in schools since Friday, 11 more shuttered classes and three more schools with confirmed infections. See the chart below. 
3) For its part, covidecolesquebec.org reported Monday night 32 more schools with at least one positive case among students or staff since Sunday. After the number of #COVID19 cases in schools dropped a week ago, the latest figures appear to indicate an upswing.
4) The Premier noted an increase in cases among older students, the reason behind the decision to have those in Grade 9 switch to online learning one out of every two weekdays. But for the sake of consistency and out of prudence, why not extend the rule to all high school grades?
5) Germany announced last week it will invest 500 million Euros to upgrade ventilation in public offices, universities and schools to fight the #coronavirus. In contrast, Quebec is spending $50 million, or 3% of Germany’s budget. Germany's population is 10 times Quebec's.
6) I’m alluding to Germany, a country the Premier cited often last spring to compare with Quebec. On Monday, however, he compared Quebec with France, which recorded 52,000 cases and 116 deaths the previous day. In contrast, Quebec’s 808 cases and 10 deaths look far less grim.
7) Meanwhile, Montreal posted 207 #COVID19 cases Monday, up from 146 the previous day, as the orange line in the chart below indicates. The city’s seven-day incidence also crept up to 113.52 cases per million population, proving the #coronavirus is still a menace in the city.
8) At the neighborhood level, efforts to contain the virus in the city centre appear to be working. Public-health SWAT teams have visited Parc-Extension. For two days running, the health district of Côte-des-Neiges, downtown and Parc-Ex have posted daily numbers under a dozen.
9) However, the Premier observed that #COVID19 outbreaks remain a problem in the workplace, citing a major one at a meat-processing plant. For these reasons, public health restrictions will remain in place for another four weeks, a truly prudent decision. End of thread.
Addendum: I miscalculated in tweet number 5. Quebec, representing 10.2% of Germany’s population, is spending what would amount to 6.4% of Germany’s budget to improve ventilation in schools. Thanks to a sharp-eyed reader for spotting this. My apologies.
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