1) Both the number of #COVID19 cases in schools and hospitalizations across Quebec are now skyrocketing, raising questions as to why Premier François Legault waited until Tuesday to announce a new lockdown. In this thread, I will go over the latest alarming statistics.

2) The number of active #COVID19 cases among students and staff soared by 364 since Monday to 4,955. This increase is almost double the previous record. Five more schools closed and 181 more classrooms were shuttered, according to the Quebec Education Ministry. See below.

3) Schools also reported an increase of 11 #COVID19 outbreaks since Monday, compared with one in health-care institutions and a drop of six in the workplace. These stats suggest strongly that poor ventilation in schools has been a factor in the spike in transmission of the virus.

4) The province added 69 #COVID19 hospitalizations to a total of 959. As bad as those numbers are, what’s more concerning is Legault’s observation that there are 7,411 absences in the health-care network across Quebec. This absenteeism rate may be higher than in the first wave.

5) At the McGill University Health Centre, there are tentative signs of another resurgence in #COVID19 hospitalizations, as the chart below makes clear. Some MUHC staff were vaccinated Tuesday against the #coronavirus. They will receive a booster shot in three weeks’ time.

6) As things now stand, the overwhelming majority of Quebec health professionals have not been vaccinated, and they won’t be for some time. Arguably, the most vulnerable medical staff work in emergency rooms, where more and more are getting infected amid rising ER overcrowding.

7) Meanwhile, Montreal’s seven-day rolling average reached another high, 28.75 cases per 100,000 residents, 3.75 points above the threshold set by Harvard University's experts to impose a lockdown. By that measure, Montreal should have gone into a major lockdown last Friday.

8) Montreal’s #COVID19 test positivity rate now stands at 7.4%, up from 6.7% two weeks ago. The highest positivity rate (and still rising) is found in Saint-Léonard, 11.6%. There are also high rates in Saint-Laurent (10.2%), LaSalle (9.7%) and Côte-Saint-Luc (9.4%). See below.

9) After posting relatively few #COVID19 fatalities in the last few days, Montreal added 17 to a death toll that has reached 3,725. That compares with 2,588 in Paris. Please take a look at the rising blue wave in the chart below.

10) Sadly, such grim numbers were foreseen by some. The question is why the government decided to wait eight days after a group of 75 experts urged urged an immediate “circuit-breaker” lockdown. Instead, the lockdown announced Tuesday is far from a complete one. End of thread.