Quebec increasingly seems to be mocking COVID rather than “living with the virus,” as Premier François Legault and Public Health suggest.
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“We are fed up, so we pay less attention”, explains Mathieu Girdal, found on avenue du Mont-Royal, when asked if he continues to take measures to limit transmission, such as wearing a mask.
Yesterday, while the sun was shining, Le Journal strolled through the central districts of Montreal and the Quebec City Summer Festival to meet Quebecers who, for the most part, admitted to having removed their masks and resumed their social life.
However, the end of health rules led many people to forget about COVID, even though Public Health suggested “living with the virus” while continuing to advocate certain measures:
The government still recommends wearing a face covering when it is difficult to keep distance from others. Radio ads still massively convey this message.
But despite this seventh wave, many Quebecers have abandoned the mask and have no intention of putting it back on anytime soon.
Photo Olivier Faucher
Aaron Zak didn’t even know there was a seventh wave of COVID-19.
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In April, a Léger-Le Journal-TVA-QUB poll reported that 73% of respondents would continue to wear the mask “most of the time or occasionally” when the measure was lifted.
By visiting a popular thrift store in Plaza Saint-Hubert and a busy grocery store in Plateau-Mont-Royal, Le Journal found that about one in ten people wore the mask.
“We quickly get used to the mask, but we lose it just as quickly,” observes Fanny Blanchard, crossing Mont-Royal Avenue.
At the Festival d’été de Québec, COVID-19 does not exist in people’s minds. In the queues or on the Grande-Allée, people are packed like sardines.
Photo Didier Debusschère
While waiting for the concerts of the Festival d’été de Québec, almost no one wore a mask.
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The observation is that very few passers-by wear the mask. Within hours, The Journal found a lady with her face covering her chin. She refused to take a picture, not wanting to be laughed at.
Living with the virus also means being able to avoid big waves. But Quebec fails to do so as it endures its worst pandemic summer when a seventh wave hits the province.
Hospitalizations increased by 200 in one week, deaths are more numerous than in previous years and nearly 7,000 workers are absent from the health network, while the hospital occupancy rate is exploding in many regions.
Without forgetting that “community transmission remains very strong”, as stated this week at a press conference by Dr. Marie-France Raynault, adviser to the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
Finally, to learn to live with the virus, experts have suggested reducing travel. The reverse happens.
Many Quebecers left the province this summer, as evidenced by the chaos that has reigned at Montreal-Trudeau airport since the beginning of the summer.
Traffic is back to 70% of its pre-pandemic state.
palpable disintegration
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