1) On Feb. 10, Quebec’s top health officer disclosed two confirmed #COVID19 cases of the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa. On Monday, an Abitibi-Témiscamingue official revealed 40 presumptive B.1.351 cases. Why did authorities not release this information sooner? 
2) Dr. Horacio Arruda said at the time the B.1.351 cases were associated with two “well-controlled” outbreaks. Arruda spoke more about the B.1.1.7 variant that originated in the U.K. in December and that is now circulating in Montreal. But he hardly mentioned B.1.351. Why not?
3) At a Monday afternoon news conference in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, public health doctor Omobola Sobanjo disclosed that 20 presumptive B.1.351 cases came from an outbreak following a party after the holidays, and 13 from a school cluster.
4) The school, Notre-Dame-de-Fatima, will stay closed until Feb. 24. The B.1.351 variant is not only more transmissible than strains that circulated in the fall, but #COVID19 vaccines have been shown to be less effective against it. That’s important for the public to know.
5) Public health officials in Abitibi-Témiscamingue have been tracking the two outbreaks for days now. Why did they decide to disclose these stats only on Monday when they must have been aware of some of the presumptive B.1.351 cases earlier?
6) Why didn’t Arruda disclose any of this earlier? Why hasn’t Health Minister Christian Dubé discussed the suspected contagion of B.1.351 in Abitibi-Témiscamingue? Surely the public has a right to this information, given the more transmissible nature of the variants.
7) The revelation of the much higher number of presumptive B.1.351 cases comes days after the disclosure of a public health recommendation by Arruda on Oct. 22 to implement half classes in schools — a measure that was never followed and only made public belatedly.
8) With at least Quebec 10 schools closing temporarily because of the #COVID19 variants, the government must be more transparent than ever with the public. Otherwise, some people may be lulled into a false sense of security amid declining cases of the old #pandemic.
9) Meanwhile, the new #pandemic — consisting of the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants — is beginning to rise sharply both in Quebec and Ontario, more so in Ontario. The positivity rate of presumptive #COVID19 variants in Ontario has surged by 50% in just the past three days.
10) As for Quebec, the province on Monday reported a total of 415 #COVID19 cases presumed to be from one of the variants, up by 86 from the day before. This is happening with schools and stores still open and Montreal emergency rooms packed. End of thread.
Addendum: The following charts could not fit into tonight’s thread. Please review the chart below of Montreal #COVID19 cases ramping up to 416 from the day before.
Addendum 2: Quebec’s #COVID19 death toll rose by 11 to 10,318 on Monday. Below is a chart of Montreal’s pandemic deaths, which have climbed to 4,483.
Addendum 3: On Friday, the number of schools that closed due to #COVID19 jumped to 12 from eight the day before. See the chart below. It will be interesting to look at the numbers the Quebec Education Ministry releases Tuesday reflecting the weekend’s announcements by schools.
Addendum 4: People ask me all the time why I focus on the emergency room numbers. It's to emphasize that ER overcrowding is never acceptable. It was not acceptable before the #pandemic, and it's certainly not acceptable now, with the #variants around. See the chart below.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
