COVID-19 in Quebec: What you need to know this weekend
CBC
Sports tournaments will be allowed to resume in Quebec, bars will be allowed to reopen, and working from home will no longer be mandatory, all as of Monday, as the province moves into the next phase of its plan to lift most COVID-19 restrictions by mid-March.
Bars, which have been closed since Dec. 20, will have to operate at 50 per cent capacity, with last call for food and alcohol at midnight and a closing time of 1 a.m. Customers must remain seated, with a maximum of 10 people per table, or the residents of three households. Dancing and karaoke will remain banned until March 14.
As well, venues that accommodate 10,000 spectators or fewer will no longer have any capacity limits as of Monday. Capacity limits will also be lifted for places of worship and funerals.
Working remotely for jobs that could be done from home will no longer be mandatory as of Monday.
As well, Quebec's workplace health and safety board (CNESST) says masks will no longer be required in the workplace, provided there are physical barriers between people or a distance of two metres can be kept between them. Masks must still be worn in common areas.
Health Canada has approved Canada's first homegrown vaccine against COVID-19.
It was developed by Medicago, a pharmaceutical company based in Quebec City, and the British-American vaccine giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
Health Canada says the vaccine, under the name Covifenz, can be used in adults age 18-64. It comes on the heels of Health Canada's approval of the Novavax shot last week.
It is the sixth COVID-19 vaccine approved for use in the country, and a medical officer for Medicago has said that it is the first plant-based vaccine ever approved for human use.
Quebec and Montreal public health officials say the Omicron wave is slowing, with indicators like hospitalizations and the number of students absent from school showing infections are on a downward trend.
Officials say the province now estimates three million Quebecers likely caught the Omicron variant in the fifth wave, with about one million of those infections seen in Montrealers.
"Things are heading in the right direction," said Quebec's interim director of public health Dr. Luc Boileau."But this wave is not over," he added, urging people to remain cautious as Quebec continues to ease restrictions.
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