Quebec COVID curfew starts at 10 p.m., ban on private gatherings

A ban on private gatherings is now in effect in Quebec and a COVID-19 curfew is set to begin at 10 p.m.

Premier François Legault announced the new restrictions at a news conference Thursday night in Montreal.

“We have to act rapidly, the situation is evolving rapidly,” Legault said. “We can wait for all sorts of studies and more details, but it’s better to act and adjust a little later.”

Legault says hospitals in the province risk being overwhelmed as the number of patients with COVID-19 continues to rise and that hospitalizations linked to the disease doubled in a week.

Legault has also ordered restaurants to close their dining rooms and said in-person classes at schools, universities and junior colleges will not resume until at least Jan. 17.

Places of worship have also been ordered to close, except for funerals which will be limited to 25 people.

The curfew bans people from being outside, with certain exceptions, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., and Legault says the province will report more than 16,000 new COVID-19 cases today.

Quebec is the only province to use a curfew as part of its efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, a previous curfew was in effect from Jan. 9, 2021, to May 28.

Premier Francois Legault said the curfew will run from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for an indefinite period of time. Restaurants will have to close their dining rooms Friday and serve takeout only. Indoor private gatherings are also banned starting Friday.

The province first imposed a curfew during the pandemic on Jan. 9, 2021, and only lifted the health order on May 28.

Quebec was one of several to exceed its record for new infections of COVID-19, reporting 14,188 cases.

Earlier Thursday, the research institute that reports to the government said its modelling predicted “significant growth in new hospitalizations and the consequent occupancy of regular and intensive care beds over the next three weeks.”

Institut national d’excellence en sante et en services sociaux said its models indicated there could be between 1,600 and 2,100 COVID-19 patients outside intensive care over the next three weeks. The institute said the number of intensive care patients during that period could be between 300 and 375. The more pessimistic scenarios _ 2,100 regular COVID-19 patients and 375 intensive care patients _ would surpass anything recorded during the previous waves of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Agency of Canada said the latest provincial and territorial data show that an average of 1,892 people with COVID-19 were being treated in Canadian hospitals each day this week, which is 23 per cent higher than last week.

“Keeping infection rates down remains key to avoiding renewed increases in severe illness trends over the coming weeks and months, as well as to ease the longer-term strain on the health system,” the federal agency said in a statement Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2021.