Quebec Liberal opposition asks Legault government to drastically increase COVID-19 testing in Montreal – CTV News Montreal

MONTREAL -- Following the Legault governments announcement that it will slowly reopen schools and businesses across the province, Quebecs Liberal opposition is asking for increased COVID-19 testing on the island of Montreal.

Opposition leader Pierre Arcand said on Wednesday that a series of criteria outlined by the World Health Organization needs to be met in order to ease confinement measures amid the pandemic.

We are not sure at all that these criteria are being met, Arcand said. Our concern really is about the situation that exists right now in Montreal.

Cases of community transmission across the island and the fact that some hospital emergency rooms are overcapacity are among the partys concerns, particularly in Montreal North, where there have been reports of a recent spike in COVID-19 cases.

There are some areas in Montreal that need more testing, Arcand said.

According to data released by the city of Montreal on Tuesday, 1,039 people have died of COVID-19 so far, and there have been 12,487 confirmed cases to date. Of the 12,487 confirmed cases, 1,153 were in Montreal North.

On Tuesday, the provinces public health officer, Dr. Horacio Aruda, said that theyre aiming to go from Quebec's daily testing capacity of 14,000 to about 20,000 as the Legault government moves to reopen schools and businesses.

Marc Tanguay, the MNA for LaFontaine, which includes the municipality of Rivire-des-Prairies, said if the data isntaccurate, theres no way to understand the extent of the issue and work to fix it.

We must collectively do better, he said, adding that its not a problem to open the province when theres stability in the number of cases which he said is not the case in Montreal North.

Yesterday, public health officials announced that a COVID-19 testing clinic will be opening in the area.

A place thats easy to be tested is very welcome, said Paule Robitaille, the MNA for Bourassa-Sauv. She said many Montreal North residents have trouble with accessibility, and some clinics that test for COVID-19 are hard to navigate.

Robitaille also pointed out that some of the residents in this area are poorer and suffer from chronic health conditions, meaning theyre disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the Haitian community theres a prevalence for some diseases, said Frantz Benjamin, the MNA for Viau.

A quarter of the health workers live in Montreal North, Robitaille said. These people gave their heart to help old people in nursing homes, in CHSLDs, and maybe werent as protected as they should have been.

While the party says it understands the need to reopen the economy, it doesnt think it should be at the expense of public health.

Whats happening in Montreal North is happening also elsewhere, the virus moves very fast and therefore we need to test, we need to figure out whats going on, and we need to isolate the people who need to be isolated, Robitaille said. We can only do that if we know whats going on.

Montreal's Public Health Director, Mylne Drouin, said on Tuesday that there is a plan to focus on neighbourhoods that have a high number of COVID-19 cases.

People will have access and capacity to get tested, she said. One of the conditions for a successful deconfinement is to be able to intervene rapidly where there are outbreaks. If we want to see where there are outbreaks, we need to have tests.

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Quebec Liberal opposition asks Legault government to drastically increase COVID-19 testing in Montreal - CTV News Montreal