We're starting to open here, which is cool with me, we've had single digit cases daily for a few weeks, our number of deaths is at 7 and we have no one presently in ICU. So they've opened patios at restaurants at 50% capacity or 1 person for every 10 sq meters, whichever is less. You can get your hair cut, but no nails done (don't ask me how they made that distinction). They've resumed paramedical practices with restrictions on PPE and spacing etc.
The dental clinic I work in is seeing emergencies and urgent patients. Except, those only make up about 30% of the practice. So most of us aren't back at work. Probably won't be until we can resume preventative and maintenance treatment like cleanings and aerosol generating procedures like fillings.
We just never got it "that bad" in our province. I look at whats happening in Ontario and Quebec and think its bonkers that they're opening.
Well, Quebec is only opening up regions because they have close to nothing happening so they don't need to be closed for the rest of us in the greater Montreal area who have all the hospitals and long term care hospital centers (CHSLD in french) where almost 90% of the mortality is.
Greater Montréal is a 4,2M population, so half of the province of +/-8,5M...I cant speak for Ontario because they count their cases and deaths differently than us here in Quebec but with a 15M population, they sure will have more cases and will also open up gradually, probably region by region too.
By comparison, Winnipeg has a 750k population if I'm not mistaking, which is approximatley what some regions of Quebec or Ontario are.
Also good to know, in Quebec, almost every death is by default Covid related, so that blows up the numbers, plus, it seems we are testing more than most of other provinces or even countries, we are up to more than 10k tests per day so that also plays into the numbers, more testing = more cases.
Here, even if what you read seems pretty bad, rest assured that everything is going ok, media tends to make it seem worst and people are freaking out because some of them have been staying home for 54 days now... But for those of us who still have to work, that have had to face our fears from day 1, things are a bit different.
I live in Montreal, the epicenter of the crisis in Canada and me, my girls and my girlfriend have worked every day from the start, we take walks, we do our groceries, etc. and it's almost buisness as usual except from social distancing and all other safety measures. That said, gyms wont open soon, neither are hair dressers or anything like that, our hospitals are filled up, we do have beds available (1000 per our PM and DPH) but we are missing a lot of health care workers (In quarantine, at risk, or just out of fear) so the situation is critical for the health system but as soon as we get it under control, we will slowly start to open..For now, we are scheduled to open up Montreal by may 25, but it could be pushed back, it already was 2 times. (We were scheduled to start reopening by may 11th, then 19th, now 25th).
Anyhow, glad to see you're doing well there in Winnipeg ! Keep it up and stay safe !
