The Quebec mask mandate will last longer than initially planned. While officials had said that face-covering rules would end in most places in mid-April, Interim National Public Health Director Dr. Luc Boileau confirmed Tuesday that public health has officially recommended that the government maintain the mandate through April.
Following a brief lull in cases after the Omicron variant swept through the province (worst. Christmas. ever), COVID-19 cases in Quebec have begun to increase yet again. In the last 24 hours, Quebec has seen 3,319 new cases and 1,238 new hospitalizations, many of which seem to be from the Omicron BA.2 variant.
This very well may have been the longest two years of our lives. Remember when the thought of socially distancing for two weeks had everybody in a tizzy? There's no way we could have imagined that this particular moment in history would be as intense as it has been.Now, as we enter a new spring, restrictions are lifting, and everything is slowly returning to "normal" (whatever that even means in a post-COVID context), many Quebecers are reluctant to give up the habits made during the pandemic.In the aftermath of trucker convoys in Ottawa and Quebec City, it may be easy to think that everyone in Quebec is fed up with COVID-19 restrictions. But the data tells us that this isn't actually true.