Vulnerable Groups Bear the Weight of Montreal Reopening

Montreal is reopening, with the removal of all mandates and COVID-19 restrictions, excluding the mask mandate. Some Montrealers are excited to get back to normal, while some express concern, including Richard Menzies, professor and epidemiologist at McGill University.

Menzies thinks the pandemic is far from over. He said there are more cases now compared to cases we saw in the first and second wave. He says there are 1,000 new cases per day. Menzies said he knows more people who are getting sick during the Omicron wave than ever before.

1,115 people are in hospital for COVID-19 while 1,614 new cases have been detected in the province. 

The accuracy of these numbers is questionable, since government has limited the PRC tests to vulnerable groups as of January. 

A senior health advisor said Quebec was “absolutely overwhelmed by the Omicron wave."

Unless someone is in a vulnerable group, a place with an environmental risk or active outbreak they cannot access PCR tests since early January 2022. 

Many business owners rejoice in reopening as they took an economic hit as a result of mandated lockdowns. Some business owners citing decreased clientele as a result of the vaccine passports.

Menzies said restrictions are a temporary measure and that they were not imagined to be kept in place for more than two years.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault called removing restrictions a "calculated risk.", but the healthcare system and the immunocompromised bear the weight.

Menzies said that no one is talking about vulnerable groups.

14% of Canadians 15+ are immunocompromised, according to 2020 statistics. They are not the only group who will bear the weight of reopening, as this also includes the elderly, disabled, students and healthcare workers. But what other groups may experience a risk as a result of the economic pressure to “get back to normal”? 

Data from early 2020, showed that low income and racialized neighbourhoods were hit the hardest by COVID-19 rates. Montréal-Nord, a neighbourhood that is both low income and racially diverse, held a high death toll at the start of the pandemic. Montreal Nord is the borough with the second highest cumulative rate of cases per 100,000 people since the start of the pandemic, with 18,297.8 total cases. 

So how can we keep safe despite reopening measures?

Menzies said that the provincial government should invest in inquiring on those who transmit the virus, people at risk, vaccines and fourth dose.