After a week filled with record-high COVID-19 case numbers and new health measures, Premier François Legault took to Facebook on Saturday to ask Quebecers for a two- to three-week "Christmas truce."
"If I had one wish this morning, it would be that we all call a Christmas truce," Legault said in his Facebook post. "Let's call a truce and focus on what we have to do in the next few weeks. [...] It would be a nice collective Christmas present to ourselves."
According to Legault's message, the "truce" involves doing things like reducing contacts, going to get a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine if you're eligible and doing "everything we can to relieve our caregivers and take care of each other."
He also asked that for the next few weeks, people stop "attacks" on social media and in real life, which he said, "would help us all make it through."
Legault said he realized "how serious the situation was" when experts from the Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) and Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) showed him models of projected hospitalizations based on current data.
This, he said, is what motivated him to implement new measures on Thursday, such as cancelling expanded holiday gatherings, reducing the capacity of businesses to 50% and banning high-risk activities like dancing, office parties and karaoke.
"I immediately decided to intervene with strong measures and to announce the state of the situation," he said. "It doesn't matter if I had to backtrack on what I had said a few days earlier, even if I had to disappoint you."
Legault also said that, as of Wednesday, around 20% of Quebec COVID-19 cases were linked to the Omicron variant, which was "much higher than expected."
"The Omicron variant is progressing at a lightning speed. It's hard to imagine. We haven't seen anything this overwhelming since the pandemic began," he said.
However, on a more positive note, he added that "despite everything, the vast majority of Quebecers have answered the call and are reducing their contacts. We have many volunteers to help us administer the 3rd dose as quickly as possible to the most vulnerable, to health care workers and then to the entire population."
On Friday, Quebec announced its highest ever daily COVID-19 case count, followed by its second-highest — 3,631 new cases — on Saturday.
Health Canada has a robust website with all the latest information on COVID-19 vaccines and can answer any questions you may have.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
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