1) Montreal posted a record single-day increase of nearly 900 #COVID19 cases Tuesday amid a near-doubling of outbreaks in the past two weeks. In this thread, I will examine the worsening situation in the metropolis. 
2) On Dec. 8, Montreal recorded 279 #COVID19 clusters. By Tuesday, the number jumped to 478, with the sharpest spikes observed in the workplace (up by 92), health-care institutions (51) and schools (31). This suggests the second wave has yet to peak in the second wave. See below.
3) Major #COVID19 outbreaks are flaring up across the city, as the large circles in the chart below show. Most of the major clusters are occurring in hospitals and nursing homes (the orange circles), followed by the workplace (the grey circles). Sadly, no area has been spared.
4) Montreal’s seven-day average climbed to 33.3 cases per 100,000 residents on Tuesday, another grim record. That rate is well above the 25-per-100,000 threshold set by Harvard University public health experts to impose a stricter lockdown than Quebec’s so-called holiday pause.
5) At the neighborhood level, the health district of Rivières-des-Prairies, Anjou and Montreal East confirmed 200 new #COVID19 cases in the past two days. But as you can glimpse from the chart below, #coronavirus transmission is surging in many other districts across the city.
6) Authorities have been carrying out daily #COVID19 tests ranging from the high 20,000s to the mid-40,000s in the last few days. But the positivity rate in the borough of Saint-Léonard has also risen: from 11.6% on Dec. 8 to 13.3 per cent on Dec. 15 — the highest in the city.
7) As perilous as the situation might be in Montreal, the Capitale-Nationale and the Montérégie noted bigger percentage increases in their #COVID19 cases on Tuesday. Again, this suggests that the second wave has also yet to peak in other regions of the province.
8) For six days in a row, Quebec has reported more than 1,000 #COVID19 hospitalizations. In early November, the government was hoping the daily number of cases would drop below 1,000. Now, cases have averaged more than 2,145 a day since Dec. 18. See the chart below.
9) The pressure on health workers is enormous amid a severe shortage and the growing risk of catching #COVID19. Nurses at the Lakeshore General Hospital have been ordered to work 12-hours shifts, even during their stat holidays. The ER was filled to 129% capacity Tuesday night.
10) The one glimmer of hope is that on Tuesday, the Health Ministry reported that the total number of #COVID19 outbreaks in Quebec declined by 47 to 1,631. Is this a one-day blip? These numbers will have to be monitored over the next few days to confirm whether this is a trend.
11) Finally, the #pandemic death toll in the province rose by 28 to 7,794 Tuesday. Montreal added three more fatalities to a death toll of 3,764, compared with 2,621 in Paris. In the meantime, another 437 Quebecers got the first of two #COVID19 shots. End of thread. Stay safe.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
