Quebec confirms 85 more coronavirus deaths as cases near 48,000

The Quebec government revealed that the province’s COVID-19-related death toll has reached 4,069, after announcing 85 more deaths since Sunday afternoon.

As part of the province’s daily briefings, Quebec Premier François Legault updated the numbers, confirming 47,984 known cases and 1,525 hospitalizations, 169 of whom are in the ICU.

Currently, a reported 347,398 tests have turned up negative throughout Quebec and over 14,600 cases have been “cured.”

• See also:
  • Trudeau in discussion with provinces to implement 10 days of paid sick leave
  • Select retail stores throughout Montreal reopening today
  • STM will begin handing out over 234,000 face masks today

Legault said of the newly announced deaths, 42 of them had occurred from over a week ago. He says “closer to 43” have come in the past 24 hours.

The premier continued to highlight the importance of daily testing and was happy to report Quebec reached its 14,000 per day goal last week, succeeding 15,000 tests on consecutive days this past Thursday and Friday.

#COVID19 – Au Québec, en date du 25 mai 2020 à 13h15, la situation est la suivante:
11 763 prélèvements effectués le 23 mai
13 531 analyses réalisées le 23 mai
347 398 cas négatifs
47 984 cas confirmés

Pour en savoir plus sur la situation au Québec: https://t.co/fiqW5E4y8R

— Santé Québec (@sante_qc) May 25, 2020

“I want to thank Quebecers who accepted my invitation to go out and get tested,” said Legault in French, “especially in the Montreal area.”

Legault says Quebecers are still “facing a challenge” in long-term care homes and in the coming day will announce new training classes and initiatives for people who wish to go work in CHSLDs with the “most vulnerable people in our population.”

The Premier said today is an “important day” in the Greater Montreal area as businesses begin to reopen. He announced that malls outside of the Montreal metropolitan area will be eligible to reopen as of June 1 (with more details slated to be announced this afternoon.)

Aujourd’hui, on rend public le plan de déconfinement graduel de tous les secteurs. Ce plan est conditionnel à l’évolution de la pandémie au Québec.

Autrement dit, il est conditionnel à ce qu’on reste tous disciplinés.

Les détails 👉https://t.co/VsWdpZH3HH
Le résumé 👇 pic.twitter.com/NmkXUZYuaG

— François Legault (@francoislegault) May 25, 2020

Legault says he’s been receiving a lot of emails from “other sectors” of the economy, asking him when sports, camping, restaurants, and hotels are going to reopen. “We haven’t forgotten about you,” he says. “We’re having regular discussions with public health as to when we can go forward. We can’t take the risk of having too much traffic in hospitals, we have to stretch it out over a certain amount of time.”

Canada’s coronavirus death toll now totals 6,453.