1) Since late last week, the number of Quebec schools that have closed due to #COVID19 — most likely the variants — has jumped by 17 to 23. In this thread, I will assess Premier François Legault’s decision to let high school students in red zones resume full-time classes. 
2) In addition to the temporary school closures, 232 more classrooms have been shuttered — for a total of 880, according to the latest chart by the Quebec Education Ministry. And on Tuesday, the number of #COVID19 school outbreaks rose by five to 106.
3) There is nothing to suggest that #COVID19 is subsiding in schools. In fact, as of 9:45 p.m. Tuesday, seven more schools in Quebec announced that they have suspected variant cases, according to the dependable covidecolesquebec.org.
4) What Quebec schools need are air purifiers. Instead, Grades 9, 10 and 11 students are going back to school five days a week as the B.1.1.7 variant intensifies in the city. The situation is so dire authorities are vaccinating the parents of schoolchildren in a pilot project.
5) Meanwhile, the number of #COVID19 hospitalizations in Montreal inched up by seven to 279. Nine of the city’s 17 hospitals observed modest increases in #pandemic admissions. Provincially, #COVID19 hospitalizations have crept up for the past two days.
6) I'd like to take the opportunity at this point to address speculation that more younger Quebecers are now being treated in ICUs. The data do not appear to support this. There were more younger people in ICUs during the peak of the second wave in January. See the chart below.
7) But that doesn’t mean younger Quebecers are not at risk. To date in the #pandemic, one 19-year-old has died; along with seven people in their 20s (up by one since Feb. 5); 14 people in their 30s (up by one since Feb. 5); and 184 in their 50s, up by 19 (!) since Feb. 5.
8) Quebec, along with every other province, has two weapons in the fight against #COVID19: public health restrictions and the vaccines. Every loosening of restrictions blunts that weapon. Which leaves the province with the vaccines, with coverage still limited.
9) The experience in the U.K. has shown it started to slash the number of #COVID19 cases after at least 30% of the population was vaccinated, along with public health restrictions. In contrast, Quebec started easing restrictions even before 10% of the population was given shots.
10) In that context, it may have been premature for Premier François Legault to declare on Tuesday that “Quebec is resisting the third wave.” End of thread. Please limit your social contacts and wear masks in public. montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/an…
Addendum: The following charts didn’t make it into tonight’s thread, so they are being reproduced here. The first one shows Montreal posting 240 #COVID19 cases Tuesday, the lowest daily total since Nov. 19. But this has occurred following the usual low weekend testing.
Addendum 2: Although emergency room overcrowding remains a big problem, my sources have not informed me of #COVID19 outbreaks in ERs. Perhaps that might be the result of ER staff having received their vaccinations.
Addendum 3: Montreal added one #COVID19 fatality to a death toll of 4,598, as the chart below indicates. For context only, the city of Paris (under lockdown) posted 19 deaths on Monday and eight on Tuesday.
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