1) In the span of just one week, Quebec's gone from ranking third among industrialized jurisdictions in its seven-day average of #COVID deaths per 100,000 population to first — by far. In this thread, I will suggest this might reflect the collapse of the province’s health system. 
2) Consider the following: some #COVID patients are being asked to carry oxygen tanks home for self-treatment, a story I broke last week. In at least one nursing home, there are so many COVID-positive patients it makes more sense to keep the negative ones isolated in their rooms.
3) The super-contagious #Omicron variant has resulted in 12,000 health workers on leave, down from 20,000 two weeks ago. But the 12,000 tally equals that of the #pandemic’s first wave and does not take into account tens of thousands of other workers absent for other reasons.
4) Cancer and heart patients are having their surgeries postponed — a turn for the worse that didn't really occur during the #pandemic's first wave in 2020. Putting off clinical activities, or délestage, is expanding to other hospitals. montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…
5) And today, the Health Ministry scrambled to hold an afternoon technical briefing explaining its latest plan to deal with the #COVID crisis after Radio-Canada broke the story of a controversial guide proposing that family members help care for their loved ones in hospital.
6) Quebec’s health network was very fragile before the #pandemic — the result of an austerity regime of cutbacks that likely cost the provincial Liberals the last election. And that network has since been bombarded by five #COVID waves. It appears the system can no longer cope.
7) In nearly a quarter century of covering health care in Quebec, I have never seen the system in such a chaotic state of disarray. And I would suggest Quebec is facing the most difficult challenges of all provinces in keeping #COVID and other deaths down right now.
8) These struggles may already be reflected in the #COVID mortality rates across the country. Each province compiles its #COVID deaths in its own way and this hasn’t changed in a week. Thus, all things being equal in this regard, Quebec is sadly far ahead. See the chart below.
9) And I would venture that Quebec’s resurgence of #COVID deaths is pushing Canada’s overall mortality rate up. Please look at the chart below that appears to show how the country’s #pandemic mortality wave is coming close to reaching the peak of the second wave last January.
10) The international comparison is tragically more telling. The chart below by the Institut nationale de santé publique (INSPQ) shows dramatically the extent of the #COVID death surge in Quebec in just one week’s time.
11) This amounts to an SOS for help from the Canadian government to provide additional resources to Quebec in its dire time of need. The latest developments should also give the Quebec government pause as it considers relaxing more #pandemic restrictions. End of thread.
Addendum: A sharp-eyed reader spotted an error in my first tweet. The rate I was alluding to is #COVID deaths per million population, not 100,000. My apologies. Still, it doesn't change the overall meaning of this Twitter thread.
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