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covid 19 restrictions

As of June 18, 2022, masks are no longer mandatory for public transit users across Quebec.

While the mask mandate for indoor enclosed spaces ended back on May 14, the government extended the mandate for a handful of public areas, including public transit.

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Since July 2020, the Quebec government has made masks across the province mandatory in all public places. Well, nearly two years later, the COVID-19 Quebec mask mandate has officially been dropped.

While it was originally meant to be lifted in mid-April, the mask mandate in Quebec was extended following a bump in cases during the virus' sixth wave.

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On April 29, 2022, Quebec Premier, François Legault and Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau spoke at Montreal's McGill University's downtown campus to announce the official arrival of a brand new Moderna plant in Montreal.

Trudeau and Legault were joined by a number of federal ministers, including Christian Dubé and Moderna's CEO, Stéphane Bancel, and Moderna's General Manager, Patricia Gauthier.

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Planning a trip to the United States soon? It's best to brush up on some updated rules. The vaccination measures set in place at the Canada-U.S. border have since been extended by the American government for Canadian travellers.

On April 21, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the United States would be officially extending the temporary vaccine requirement for non-American travellers heading to the U.S. by land or port entry.

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Now that many countries are facing a sixth COVID-19 wave, it seems as if pandemic restrictions won't be eased as quickly as we initially thought.

Well, that's not the news that many Canadians want to hear, particularly Quebecers. According to a recent Angus Reid Institute study, Quebec is the Canadian province that is most eager for COVID-19 restrictions to be done with.

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During a February 23 news conference, two top Montreal public health officials announced that the worst of the Omicron variant wave is now behind us, in what felt like a COVID-19 closing ceremony.

Dr. Mylène Drouin, Montreal's regional director of public health, and Sonia Bélanger, who heads the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l'île-de-Montréal, both offered their thanks to health care workers and said they hoped this would be their final news conference about the pandemic.

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COVID-19 has not been playing around, particularly when it comes to the Omicron variant's impact on employment. In January 2022, Quebec experienced a loss of 63,000 jobs according to Statistics Canada, with accommodation and food services being the hardest-hit industries.

This dip in employment was the first major decline in 12 months, when the province was also under strict health measures, StatCan reports. In December 2021, Premier François Legault imposed a provincewide curfew along with a ban on indoor dining, which Statistics Canada links to Quebec's 1.4% total decline in employment seen last month.

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The provincial government is easing some COVID-19 restrictions in Quebec, however, a majority of the population believe it is now time to end all rules set in place, according to a new poll.

The Angus Reid Institute (ARI) surveyed 1,688 Canadian adults between January 27 and 28 and asked whether COVID-19 restrictions should come to an end, allowing those at-risk to self-isolate if they're at risk.

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Though officials announced a flurry of new health measures aimed at slowing the spread of the Omicron variant, Premier François Legault said Thursday that reintroducing a curfew in Quebec is off the table — at least for now.

"The measures we announced today are the measures we think will be enough to change the situation," the premier said in response to a question about a curfew.

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In a press conference on August 5, Premier François Legault announced that Quebec will be introducing a vaccine passport for double-dosed Quebecers to use for non-essential activities.

The premier said Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé will disclose details of the vaccine passport in Quebec in the coming days.

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In an August 4 tweet, Premier François Legault said the province is set to announce new COVID-19 measures "in the coming days" as COVID-19 cases in Quebec rise in certain regions.

On Tuesday, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé tweeted that the COVID-19 situation in Quebec's Mauricie region was "worrying," particularly among unvaccinated and partially-vaccinated 18- to 30-year-olds, as cases in Mauricie–Centre-du-Québec jumped from 17 to 146 between July 22 and August 2.

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In a virtual press conference on July 30, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said data suggests that Canada is at the start of a fourth wave of COVID-19, mostly driven by the B.1.617.2 variant, known as the Delta variant.

Tam and Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada's deputy chief public health officer, presented new COVID-19 data modelling that forecasted what the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada could look like in early September.

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