As Canada's COVID-19 cases surge, unions and NDP expand their support for Trudeau's reckless back-to

As Canada’s COVID-19 cases surge, unions and NDP expand their support for Trudeau’s reckless back-to-work campaign


In Quebec and Ontario, Canada’s two most populous provinces, the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading largely out of control. With new national, Quebec and Ontario daily infection records having been set this past week, health authorities acknowledge that they have been overwhelmed by the surge in novel coronavirus cases. Yet the entire political establishment is doubling down on its criminal back-to-work, back-to-school drive.

The crisis is expressed most sharply in Quebec, where the province’s health minister, Christian Dubé, felt compelled Tuesday to urge everyone to stay at home except for work-related or other necessary travel. Quebec recorded 1,364 cases that day, the fifth day in a row that new daily infections in the province exceeded 1,000. In Quebec City, infections have exploded, from about 100 per week just a month ago to more than 1,000 per week.

In contrast to the spring, when the virus spread chiefly in Montreal and in long-term care facilities, infections are now occurring throughout the province. According to Dr. Matthew Oughton, a specialist for infectious diseases at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, approximately 6 percent of all coronavirus tests are coming back positive. Generally, any rate above 5 percent is seen as an indicator that the virus is spreading out of control.

“This time is totally different, totally different,” Dubé said of the pandemic’s second wave. “It is very difficult to say where you got it.”

Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/09/caco-o09.html