Arruda evaluates “very strongly” wearing a mask mandatory

According to Dr. Horacio Arruda , the people have forgotten the virus, and does not see the risk that “the curve may reflamber”.

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7 July 2020 16h29

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Arruda evaluates “very strongly” wearing a mask mandatory

Elizabeth Fleury

The Sun

The national Directorate of public health evaluates “very strongly” the possibility of recommending that the wearing of the mask mandatory in all indoor public places in Quebec or of certain regions. At least that is what was suggested on Tuesday, Dr. Horacio Arruda, who was said to have “discussions very intense” on this subject with the cabinet of François Legault. “The government is going to have to make decisions shortly, it is not I who will make the announcement”, he said.

According to Dr. Arruda, people have forgotten about the virus and does not see the risk that “the curve may reflamber”.

“With what is currently happening in Lanaudière, with what happened in the Montérégie region, what is happening elsewhere in the world, what is happening in the United States, I think we’re going to have to ask serious questions and to quickly act” if the population is not at the rendez-vous for the port of the mask, said in a press briefing, the national Director of public health, while he was passing through the region of Lanaudière.

“My recommendations are in the process currently to the authorities,” said Dr. Arruda, stating that “the municipalities can continue to do what is in their jurisdiction”.

“I can’t move forward today, this is not me who is going to make this announcement-if there is a an announcement of a mask is compulsory for the whole population of Quebec, or for certain territories. We are in a very intense situation, given what we have seen over the past few weeks,” he said.

“With what is currently happening in Lanaudière, with what happened in the Montérégie region, what is happening elsewhere in the world, what is happening in the United States, I think we’re going to have to ask serious questions and to quickly act ”

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Dr. Horacio Arruda

Dr. Arruda has said to assess “the balancing between the effect of rendering mandatory and the perverse effect not to make it mandatory that if people are not at the rendez-vous in terms of behaviour”.

“It should be said that time plays against us. […] It is the holiday period, if everyone starts to do rallies, we multiply the virus, and the number of cases generated by each case will increase, and you can find yourself in a curve that begins to rise exponentially,” he exposed.

On Monday, mayor Régis Labeaume has returned in the court of public health the decision to make it mandatory or not wearing a mask in enclosed public places in Quebec. “This is public health, which will decide it, and if it has guidelines to give us, we give them”, he said in a press briefing.

The City of Montreal, it, has not waited for the recommendations of the public health before making the decision Monday to make compulsory the wearing of the covers-face in all enclosed public places of the metropolis as of 27 July. Ottawa and other municipalities in eastern Ontario have also taken this decision.

At a press conference in Saint-Jérôme, Tuesday, prime minister François Legault has said he was not closed to the idea of making compulsory the wearing of the mask in indoor public places, at least in certain regions. “The situation is very different from one municipality to the other. We don’t have the same situation in Montreal than in Quebec city”, he compared.

François Legault has said he “always thought that in order to maintain the membership [of the population], it was necessary to go gradually”.

“This is why we began by strongly recommending the wearing of the mask, then make it mandatory in the transit. There, we saw the end of last week that the guidelines were not really adhered to in the bars and restaurants, so we must also adjust with the results. […] I think you have to be careful and that nothing should be excluded, including requiring the wearing of mask in all indoor public places”, he said.

Records

About the idea to hold in the bars and restaurants of the records containing customers ‘ contact information to facilitate epidemiological surveys, François Legault said that his government was “not made here”.

“Again, I do not excluded. If we saw, for example, in some establishments such as bars there was a lot of spread, maybe we could ask for a registry of people to be able to trace the people who have been in contact with an infected person. But for now, what we want is that the people in the bars and restaurants meet the distance of two metres and that there is no spread” of the virus, he said.

Le Soleil