There's A Legault Press Conference This Afternoon — Here's What Could Be On The Way
According to news reports and suggestions from public health.
Almost one month into the latest round of Quebec COVID-19 rules, Premier François Legault is set to hold a press conference alongside Health Minister Christian Dubé and interim National Public Health Director Dr. Luc Boileau. The press conference will appear on the premier's Facebook page at 2:00 p.m. on January 25.
As of the time of writing, it's still unclear exactly what Legault plans to announce — if anything. But news reports and previous comments from Dr. Boileau suggest we could be in for some rule relaxations.
In an interview on Radio-Canada program Tout un matin on Friday, January 21, the public health director predicted that a gradual reopening would begin before mid-February if COVID-19 hospitalizations continued to decrease.
Since his statement Friday morning, the province has reported a drop in hospitalization numbers four times, later in the day on January 21, on January 22, January 23, and January 25.
Emphasizing that the reopening process would occur slowly over time, Boileau told Tout un matin host Patrick Masbourian that officials would be looking at multiple concurrent rule relaxations in order to ensure consistency between sectors.
According to TVA, restaurants and venues could be first up. The station reports that restaurant dining rooms might reopen with limits on table party sizes. Radio-Canada says they'd be limited to 50% of their capacity.
TVA suggests youth sports could resume at the same time as the reopening of restaurants.
Premier Legault will also announce the reopening of theatres and performance halls with a maximum of 500 customers and 50% of their normal capacity, respectively, TVA says. Radio-Canada reports, however, that these openings will come after that of restaurants.
Private gatherings of two household bubbles, banned since December 31, might be allowed too, according to Radio-Canada.
The government has not yet confirmed any of these points. It's also unclear what the timeline would be for all of these reopenings and rule relaxations.