1) More than three months into the #pandemic, authorities in Montreal are now pursuing what appears to be a dicey strategy: easing up on #COVID19 testing while at the same time reopening the city to large gatherings. In this thread, I will try to explain why this is so risky.

2) This Friday, the city’s sprawling shopping malls will reopen, likely attracting large crowds. On that same date, Montreal’s public health department will discontinue its five mobile testing clinics that have roamed the city. At the very least, the optics don’t look good.

3) Would it not make more sense to keep the mobile clinics and ramp up testing for another two weeks to assess the impact of the mass reopening? Instead, the Quebec government reported on Tuesday its lowest number of #COVID analyses in weeks: 5,200.

4) In neighbouring Ontario, the government carried out 21,724 #COVID tests on Monday, even though the province reported a decline in new infections from 211 to 187. And unlike Quebec, Ontario will not allow movie theatres to reopen on Monday.

5) Montreal on Tuesday declared 40 #COVID cases, up from 29 the day before. As the orange line in the chart below shows, the epidemiological curve is bending sharply. But how much of that is due at the very least to fewer tests being conducted?

6) Dr. Mylène Drouin, director of the public health department in the metropolis, noted Tuesday that Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Montreal North and Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension remain #COVID hot spots. She disclosed for the first time that Anjou is a hot spot.

7) Drouin also revealed for the first time that authorities are involved in quelling #COVID clusters in 35 workplaces in the city. One of them is likely a warehouse in Saint-Laurent. Those clusters are in addition to 76 outbreaks in long-term care centres and seniors’ residences.

8) Meanwhile, Montreal island posted 11 #COVID fatalities, most of them occurring in long-term care centres. That’s about 10 times fewer than the daily number during the peak of the #pandemic in the city — an undeniable sign of the fragile progress being made.

9) Drouin observed that #COVID hospitalizations and ICU stays are down in the city, although she did not provide any stats. As the chart below shows, provincially the number of #COVID hospitalizations has dropped by 54% in less than a month, another heartening development.

10) Drouin also noted fewer patients are showing up in emergency rooms, but again, she gave no figures. Still, as the chart below indicates, Montreal’s ERs are back to their usual overcrowding. Once again, I can’t stress enough how this is unacceptable, especially in a #pandemic.

11) So, as Chinese authorities renew a lockdown in Beijing, expanding it to three neighborhoods, Montreal is reopening fast. And we’re doing so without mandatory face coverings and a decline in #COVID testing. End of thread. Please maintain #PhysicalDistancing and wear masks.