'This is a big change': Quebec to lift COVID-19 restrictions for restaurants, home gatherings, bars


The Quebec authorities has introduced a plan for getting out of the present lockdown and for how one can "study to reside with COVID" over the long term. It intends to raise almost all public well being restrictions by mid-March.


Premier François Legault stated a number of measures will likely be lifted as early as Saturday, together with these imposed on eating places and personal house gatherings.


Masks-wearing necessities and the vaccine passport, nevertheless, will stay in impact the place they're already required as a result of these are measures "that enable us to at the moment reopen," Legault stated throughout a information convention on Tuesday. 


Hospitalizations have dropped from 3,400 to 2,400 previously three weeks, he stated, which was one of many key elements in transferring forward with a calming of the measures.


“We might want to study to reside with the virus. There could also be a sixth wave finally, however we should reside with COVID," Legault stated.


MEASURES BEING LIFTED IN QUEBEC

Feb. 12:


  • No restrict for personal gatherings, although the advice is to maintain it at 10 individuals or individuals from three households

  • Eating places can seat as much as 10 individuals or individuals from three completely different addresses per desk

  • All caregivers can go to a cherished one in a bunch house with a vaccine passport

Feb. 14 (beforehand introduced):


  • Gyms and spas can reopen at 50 per cent capability

  • Indoor sports activities and recreation actions, in addition to video games, can resume for everybody, together with faculty and college sports activities (change rooms are restricted to 50 per cent capability)

  • Competitions and tournaments stay prohibited 

  • Indoor golf amenities and climbing gyms can open at 50 per cent capability

  • Out of doors reveals can host as much as 5,000 individuals

Feb. 21:


  • All shops will likely be allowed to open at 100 per cent capability

  • Locations of worship can accommodate as much as 500 individuals, up from the utmost of 250 

  • Amphitheatres can function at 50 per cent capability

  • Theatres and showrooms will likely be allowed to open at 50 per cent capability, together with the Bell Centre and the Videotron Centre

  • Reopening of recreation centres, similar to arcades, water parks, amusement parks, at 50 per cent capability

  • Conventions and assemblies can resume at half capability or max. of 500 individuals

  • Social occasions in a rented room can accommodate as much as 50 individuals with a vaccine passport

  • Wakes or viewings of ashes of a cherished can enable a most of fifty individuals at a time

Feb. 28:


  • Teleworking will now not be obligatory, however remains to be advisable 

  • Eating places should shut by 1 a.m. and respect final name for alcohol at midnight

  • Bars, pool halls and casinos can open with 50 per cent capability, however with no dancing and karaoke and so they should shut by 1 a.m. and respect final name for alcohol at midnight (everybody have to be seated)

  • Locations of worship and showrooms can open at 100 per cent capability

  • Sports activities competitions and tournaments will likely be allowed with no participant limits

  • Theatres, cinemas, and a few sports activities venues can function at full capability (aside from venues with greater than 10,000 individuals)

March 14:


  • Bars can enable dancing and karaoke at 100 per cent capability

  • Eating places, showrooms, and enormous venues, such because the Bell Centre and Videotron Centre, can reopen at full capability

  • "Actions in a social nature" in a rented room can resume usually with out capability limits so long as everybody has a vaccine passport or a most of 20 individuals with out the vaccine passport

  • Locations of worship, funerals, wakes, weddings: 100 per cent capability or a most of fifty individuals at a time with out a vaccine passport

  • Massive venues and arenas with greater than 10,000 individuals can function at full capability


‘A CALCULATED RISK’


When requested if the announcement on Tuesday had something to do with the continuing trucker convoys in Ottawa and Quebec Metropolis, the premier flatly denied the suggestion, saying the plan to reopen has been within the works with public well being for the previous few weeks.


The step to take away COVID-19 restrictions had the blessing of Quebec’s public well being division, the premier stated, as officers consider the province’s plan ahead relies on a “calculated threat” in residing with the virus.


"I simply need to inform Quebecers that I perceive that you just're fed up with these restrictions. However on the similar time, I believe it is essential that we bear in mind why we have now put in place these measures," Legault stated.


"Primarily, we have now a health-care community that was fragile earlier than the pandemic," he stated, including that earlier than, the “threat was too nice” to open up too shortly.


“If we lifted too many measures, the hospitals could be overwhelmed and we would not be capable to deal with individuals. So that is the dilemma that we had."


Provinces are actually grappling with their very own paths ahead because the Omicron wave of the pandemic continues to subside from a January peak.


Hours earlier than Legault’s information convention, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe introduced the proof of vaccination coverage in that province will likely be eradicated at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 14, however that masking will stay in impact till the tip of February.


Quebec Well being Minister Christian Dubé echoed the premier by justifying the masking and vaccine passport necessities, saying they had been catalysts within the reopening plan. These two measures, Dubé stated, will keep in place “not less than till mid-March.”


MONTREAL EASING RESTRICTIONS


The Metropolis of Montreal will progressively reopen sure amenities as measures are lifted.


  • Theatres are actually open at half capability and proof of vaccination is required

  • The Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium is opened at half capability with a most of 500 guests, and with vaccination passports required

  • As much as 1,000 individuals per web site are allowed in any respect out of doors occasions, together with festivals

  • Indoor actions at libraries, cultural centres, group centres and related venues, together with for these beneath 18 years previous, are resumed with a 25-person most

  • A most of 500 spectators is allowed at indoor sporting occasions. Venues can function at 50 per cent capability and spectators should stay seated

  • Out of doors amenities can admit 1,000 spectators


NO MORE DECREES: PQ


After nearly two years of the pandemic, the opposition Parti Quebecois stated its persistence and collaboration with the Legault authorities had reached its limits.


There will likely be no extra "carte blanche" for the CAQ, stated PQ chief Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon earlier than the Legault information convention on Tuesday.


No new well being measures will likely be accepted with out a correct debate within the Nationwide Meeting, he stated, and there may be additionally no query of accepting the extension of well being emergency decrees till the election marketing campaign subsequent fall.


Plamondon stated residents have consented to many restrictions as a result of they had been meant to be distinctive and short-term, however the authorities appears to need to lengthen them into everlasting measures.


Premier Legault stated his authorities is already engaged on tabling a invoice in March "to create a framework for the necessity to have distinctive guidelines," together with the state of emergency. 


Plamondon stated in an interview with The Canadian Press that the shortage of debate has finally broken public confidence and fuelled opposition actions such because the trucker 'freedom convoy' that happened final weekend in Quebec Metropolis.

--With information from The Canadian Press

  • Quebec Premier Francois Legault

    Quebec Premier Francois Legault declares a rest of sanitary measures, throughout a information convention on the COVID-19 pandemic, Tuesday, February 8, 2022 on the legislature in Quebec Metropolis. Quebec Well being Minister Christian Dube, proper, seems to be on. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

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