MONTREAL — As of Saturday, Quebecers will be living under a curfew while the province struggles to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
As expected, Premier Francois Legault announced a “shock therapy” of several new lockdown measures on Wednesday afternoon.
Among the measures is a curfew that will require Quebecers to be in their homes by 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. or risk a fine of up to $6,000.
For people who say “‘I won’t be able to go for a walk anymore,’ well, come on,” Legault said.
“If you want to work a little bit later, you can work after 8 p.m. at home,” and go for a walk during the day, he said.
“We’re talking here about saving lives and we’re talking about saving our health-care system.”
The curfew will apply to the whole province except the Nord-du-Quebec administrative region.
Legault stressed that other than for going to work, there will be no excuses for violating curfew. He said the province’s grocery stores and depanneurs will close at 7:30 p.m. every day to allow shoppers time to get home.
Pharmacies and gas stations will be permitted to remain open during curfew hours.
The new measures will last for four weeks, until Feb. 8.
Measures that had previously been in place, such as the closing of restaurant dining rooms, will also remain in place for the four weeks.
The announcement comes as the number of daily new cases and deaths continue to grow within the province. Quebec’s death toll from COVID-19 currently stands at 8,488 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Legault announced that while the province has seen a number of COVID-19 outbreaks stemming from the province’s schools, primary schools will re-open as planned on Jan. 11.
As part of the terms for re-opening, students in the fifth and sixth grades will be required to wear masks in the classroom.
High schools, however, will not resume in person until Jan. 18, though online learning will begin a week earlier.
Legault urged families to avoid a particularly risky activity: allowing grandparents to babysit while schools are closed. While children often don’t show COVID-19 symptoms, potentially exposing older grandparents to the virus is extremely dangerous, he said.
“That is not a good idea.”
As part of the new measures, Legault said that houses of worship, which have been allowed to operate with a capacity of 25 people, will be totally closed for four weeks, with the exception of funerals, where attendance will be capped at 10 people.
Just two months ago, Legault floated the possibility of Christmas gatherings as an incentive for Quebecers to comply with COVID-19 rules.
But as the number of new cases continued to grow, he backtracked. On Dec. 14, the premier announced an 18-day lockdown over the Christmas break, calling it a “circuit-breaker” that would allow the province time to regroup.
On the day of that announcement, 1,620 new cases were reported. On Wednesday, public health officials announced 2,641 new cases.
