A quarter of Quebecers have caught COVID-19 since early December: public health director

Almost half of Quebecers have had COVID-19 Around a quarter of the province is thought to have caught the virus just since early December, said the public health director.

If you know at least one person who was infected with COVID-19 in the last couple of months — or you were infected yourself — you’re far from alone.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Quebec’s interim public health director, Dr. Luc Boileau, said an estimated two million residents, or about 25 per cent of the population, has contracted the virus since the beginning of December.

He based the estimate on "indirect" indicators from public health regarding the highly contagious Omicron variant that dominated the fifth wave of the pandemic.

Since March 2020, nearly half of the Quebec population has been infected, he added.

“The virus is still circulating a lot,” in Quebec, Boileau said, but the risk of the situation deteriorating going forward is a “calculated” one.

The new health director said what’s reassuring is that nearly four million residents have gotten a booster dose so far, including about one million in the last month. Health experts say a booster provides more protection from the infection than two doses.

In terms of hospitalizations, the situation is still serious. Coming out the fifth wave, Quebec is now at about the same point it was seeing back on Dec. 31, Boileau added.

The update comes one day after Premier François Legault announced that several public health restrictions will be lifted beginning this weekend through the middle of March.

TWO PROVINCES SCRAP VACCINE PASSPORT — WILL QUEBEC?

Speaking to reporters during his update, Boileau said the premier made a sound choice by loosening restrictions at this point of the pandemic

“No, I don’t think it’s too soon,” he said.

“We made a rigorous proposal [that was] scientifically based and we think that the probability that we'll get through that with those measures is high. Of course, there's a risk, a calculated risk.”

Legault’s Tuesday press conference coincided with major announcements in Alberta and Saskatchewan, with those provinces' premiers saying they would no longer require the vaccine passport as part of daily life.

Asked if Quebec will follow the path taken by western provinces, Boileau said his team will take a “we’ll see” approach and re-assess the situation in mid-March, when the vast majority of COVID-19 restrictions will have been lifted.

He said, though, that he expects masking requirements to continue to remain in effect in at that point.

“So we will look at it [from] different angles, but mostly it will be related to the appeal myalgic situation and the expected progression of this wave,” he said, adding that he expects the situation to be “well controlled” by March 14.

MONITORING BA.2 VARIANT

As the situation evolves, public health officials are monitoring the emergence of a new variant detected in Canada, known as BA.2, a sub-variant of Omicron.

It’s believed to be about 30 per cent more contagious than Omicron (BA.1), but there is no evidence to date that someone who contracted Omicron, referred to as BA.1, can also catch BA.2, according to Jean Longtin, microbiologist and expert in management of the pandemic at Quebec’s Ministry of Health and Social Services.

Longtin said it’s difficult to pinpoint the number of confirmed cases in Quebec since there are several steps involved in detecting it, but in the past two weeks samples from hospitals across Quebec, including Montreal, show it’s already here.

A Danish study that analyzed coronavirus infections in more than 8,500 Danish households between December and January, found that people infected with the BA.2 subvariant were roughly 33 per cent more likely to infect others, compared to those infected with BA.1.

The newly discovered BA.2 variant has quickly become the dominant strain in Denmark.

This is a developing story. More to come.