During Premier François Legault's daily press conference today, he informed the public of why the government is choosing to keep restaurants, gyms and concert halls in Quebec red zones closed for the time being.

The premier brought up recommendations made by the Santé publique de Montréal, among others, which have requested that the Government of Quebec soften some of the restrictions in red zones.

He explained that the COVID-19 statistics from yesterday, which were released today, still show 261 new cases in Montreal. With this, Legault added that "the battle is not won in Montreal" yet.

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It's the government that makes the decisions.

Premier François Legault

Legault said it's been difficult to find a balance between "saving lives and on the other hand, quality of life of Quebecers. [...] It's not an exact science."

The premier told Quebecers that, based on everything he's learned from the beginning of the pandemic, one of the main lessons for controlling the spread of the virus is to ensure that gatherings are avoided.

"There are some people who infected a lot of people."

"If one person infects another person, it's one thing. If one person infects 10 people, […] it becomes exponential. And that's the problem we're trying to avoid."

"And that's why, right now, we're choosing, in red zones, to keep restaurants, gyms, and concert halls closed. They are opportunities for gatherings."

He mentioned that controlling gatherings inside and outside of these establishments is too difficult to allow them to reopen for the time being.