Drouin Called Out 5 Montreal Areas For Having 'Really High' COVID-19 Positivity Rates

The positivity rate is the percentage of positive tests.
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Dr. Mylène Drouin, Montreal public health director, specified in a press conference on October 30 that while the city's COVID-19 test positivity rate is stable, some areas* are being affected at rates almost three times higher than others.

Montreal's overall COVID-19 positivity rate — the percentage of all coronavirus tests performed that are actually positive — remains "quite stable" at 5%, Drouin explained. 

But she said the five Montreal neighborhoods with the highest rates of positive COVID-19 tests were Parc-Extension, at 14%, Côte-des-Neiges, Snowdon, Saint-Laurent and Côte-Saint-Luc.

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For me, this plateau is not comfortable [...] because it is a high plateau.

Dr. Mylène Drouin, Montreal's public health director 

She said the city has implemented community outreach to limit the spread of the virus in neighborhoods with higher rates, as well as local intervention to increase COVID-19 screening in those areas.

Drouin also said community transmission is still going on in Montreal, and that citizens need to continue making efforts for the next couple of weeks to reduce the spread of the virus and change the direction of the curve.

"At the end of the plateau, there [are] two options. It goes up or it goes down. Of course, we all want to see it going down and maybe have a Christmas," she said.

*This article has been updated.

  • Lea Sabbah
  • Lea Sabbah was a Staff Writer for MTL Blog. Previously, Lea was a radio host on CJLO 1690 AM and her work has been published by Global News, the Toronto Star, Le Devoir and the National Observer. In 2019, she was part of the investigative team that uncovered lead in Montreal's drinking water — a story which won Quebec's Grand Prix Judith-Jasmin. She's a graduate of the journalism program at Concordia University.

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