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Quebec Begins Closing Retail Stores Amid New Omicron Wave: NPR

A woman walks past a closed store in a shopping center in Montreal, Sunday as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada. A number of new measures introduced by the Quebec government, including the closure of stores, take effect from today.

Graham Hughes / AP


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Graham Hughes / AP


A woman walks past a closed store in a shopping center in Montreal, Sunday as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada. A number of new measures introduced by the Quebec government, including the closure of stores, take effect from today.

Graham Hughes / AP

MONTREAL, Quebec (AP) – Quebec instituted the first of three planned non-essential retail closures on Sunday as the provincial government tries to contain a new wave of COVID-19 caused by variation Omicrons are highly infectious.

Hospitals and healthcare resources in Quebec and Canada’s remote northern communities are also being stretched as case numbers explode.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced last week that most of the province’s stores will be closed for the next three Sundays, with the exception of pharmacies, convenience stores and gas stations.

Charles Milliard, president of the Federation of Quebec Chambers of Commerce, urged the government to lift these measures as soon as possible.

“The last thing businesses need during these difficult times are additional restrictions,” Milliard said in a statement. “We must give businesses the choice to open or close at the times that make the most sense for them, their employees and their customers.”

The closure comes as Quebec reports 15,845 new COVID-19 cases, as well as 13 other deaths linked to the virus.

The number of hospital admissions related to the disease has increased by 70 to 1,231, the Health Ministry said. It said 162 people are in intensive care, an increase of 9.

Quebec City’s main hospital network said it would postpone half of its surgeries and medical appointments starting Wednesday due to a spike in COVID patients.

Martin Beaumont, President and CEO of CHU de Québec-Université Laval, told a news conference that up to 10,000 medical appointments could be delayed, allowing about 50 nurses to also be redirected to the ward. area of ​​the pandemic.

The hospital network says 783 healthcare workers are in isolation, in addition to the 600 nurses who were missing from the workforce before the fifth wave of the pandemic hit.

The strain caused by the growing number of cases is exacerbated in remote communities where health care is already limited.

Bearskin Lake First Nation, a fly-only community in northern Ontario, declared a state of emergency on December 30 when 43 residents tested positive for the virus. As of Sunday, 169 people had confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, more than 40% of the total population.

“It’s a crisis,” Nishnawbe Aski Nation Minister Derek Fox said in an interview.

Bearskin Lake has no hospital and is usually served by a nursing station with two nurses. An emergency evacuation would take more than three hours for a plane to get in and out from Sioux Lookout or Thunder Bay, and that’s only if the weather permits it to land.

A federal rapid response team with three primary care nurses, one paramedic and two environmental paramedics landed at Bearskin Lake on December 30, bringing in more testing capacity with surname. Two public health nurses were also dispatched by the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Service.

Outbreaks in remote communities are also affecting Nunavut, northern Quebec and Labrador.

Nunavut confirmed 22 more cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the total to 196 cases in just 10 days.

Nunavut discourages all non-essential travel within the territory and has banned non-essential travel to and from several communities, including Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Arviat, Igloolik and Pangnirtung.

Travel bans are also now in place in Nunavik in northern Quebec until mid-January, with only important or essential travel allowed in or out of the region’s 14 villages.

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