1) As thousands of Montrealers took to the streets in a noisy demonstration Saturday afternoon against #pandemic restrictions, more evidence emerged of the spread of presumptive cases of #COVID19 variants across Quebec. Please click on my column below. montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…
2) As I note in the Gazette column, presumptive variant #COVID19 cases are beginning to rise sharply in Laval and the Laurentians. The Capitale-Nationale and the Montérégie are also recording new cases, but the exact location for 114 is not known. Please see the chart below. 
3) Yet despite the proliferation of the variants, thousands of protesters (many of whom were anti-maskers) marched along Sherbrooke St. near Premier François Legault’s Montreal offices, then zigzagged through other streets, disrupting bus lines.
4) Saturday’s demonstration followed a protest last week in front of the National Assembly calling on Legault to allow organized sports. On Friday, the government announced gyms will reopen in red zones on March 26.
5) The spread of the variants (including in the latest example, a Nun's Island daycare) should be a sobering moment. On Saturday morning, the Premier didn't mention the variants, instead focusing on the vaccination effort and suggesting that the end of the #pandemic was in sight.
6) As the chart below makes clear, Montreal has remained stuck in a #COVID19 plateau for the past two weeks, raising the question as to whether this might have something to do with the rise of the 50%-more transmissible B.1.1.7 variant in the metropolis.
7) At the neighborhood level, the densely populated health district of Côte-des-Neiges, downtown and Parc-Extension posted the highest number of #COVID19 infections since last week. These neighborhoods have many poorly ventilated apartment buildings. Please see the chart below.
8) As COVID-STOP noted in a brilliant @mtlgazette op-ed, cautious "New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Iceland, Thailand, Norway, Finland, with a combined population of 283 million, have had 4,116 COVID deaths.” On Saturday, Quebec recorded 10,535. The End.
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