The countdown to Christmas has begun! While Quebec has yet to announce which COVID-19 health measures will be in place over the holidays, Premier François Legault indicated that he's cautiously "confident" certain rules will be relaxed — specifically when it comes to the number of guests you'll be allowed to have at your house.

"The question I've heard the most in the last few weeks: What's coming for the holidays? [...] Given the increase in cases, I understand we do not want to do what we did last year and be forced to backtrack, so we will give ourselves a little more time to see how the situation goes," Premier Legault said at a press conference on November 23. "We are confident that we should be able to increase the number of people in homes."

In 2020, the provincial government announced that holiday gatherings would be allowed between December 24 to 27, but later changed its mind and cancelled Christmas gatherings due to the spread of the virus.

With that in mind, it's no surprise public health has decided to wait and continue to study the situation before recommending changes to health measures.

It's also no surprise that Premier Legault's hopeful holiday news came with a word of warning.

"Please, by Christmas, can we respect the instructions? [...] If we don't respect the basic rules by Christmas, we won't help ourselves so that we can relax these measures during the holiday season," he said.

Currently, a maximum of 10 people from different addresses or the occupants of three households are allowed to gather privately in homes throughout Quebec. This number goes up to 20 for outdoor gatherings on private property.

This article's right-hand cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.