Legault hopes to maintain the 20-person limit for the holidays

Omicron prompting warnings ahead of holidays With Quebec and other provinces reporting high COVID-19 cases and Omicron threatening, health authorities are urging caution.

François Legault refuses to be alarmed by the rise in cases and community transmission of the Omicron variant reported in Ontario.

The Quebec premier was in Montreal on Monday at the offices of the Sun Youth organization, which is in the midst of preparing and distributing Christmas baskets.

"For the moment, no tightening of sanitary measures is expected in the run-up to the holidays," he said at a media scrum.

Legault is meeting this Monday evening with the public health team led by Dr. Horacio Arruda, along with Health Minister Christian Dubé. Dubé and Arruda will provide an update on Tuesday on the current COVID-19 situation and expert projections.

ONTARIO MONITORING

Legault acknowledged that the situation in Ontario must be closely monitored.

"What's happening with the Omicron variant in Ontario, we can think that it's going to get here, so we can't take it lightly," he said. However, he noted that the number of hospitalizations in Quebec, which stands at 268 as of Monday, is not a cause for concern so far.

"It remains relatively low," he said, arguing that the high rate of vaccination in Quebec is limiting the impact on hospitalizations.

Although the outbreak of the Omicron variant is exponential in Ontario, he added that "there is no reason at this point to think that this variant is more dangerous than Delta or the other variants."

MORE HOSPITALIZATIONS EXPECTED

He warns, however, that "there will be an increase in hospitalizations, but how much? That is what the experts will tell us this (Monday) evening."

There is no plan to close the border between Quebec and Ontario, as was the case for two months last April.

"We are not there now and when we look at the hospitalizations in Ontario, when we compare with the percentage of the population, we are in comparable figures," he said.

He took the opportunity to remind everyone that the maximum number of people allowed in a home remains at 10 until Dec. 23, but his comments make it clear that he wants to allow families to get together over the holidays.

"For the holiday season, the public health recommendation is to go to a maximum of 20. For the moment, we don't have any changes proposed by public health (...) but for many reasons, we think it's important to keep this maximum of 20, so that families can see each other during the holiday season," he said.

- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 13, 2021.