Quebec pushes back reopening to May 25, citing coronavirus concerns

Premier Francois Legault announced on Thursday that the reopening of businesses, schools and daycares is being pushed until May 25, according to CTV News.

Businesses in the Montreal area were previously scheduled to reopen on May 11 before that timeline was pushed back to May 18. The new announcement will extend restrictions for an additional week.

Montreal schools were scheduled to open again on May 19, though schools in other areas of Quebec are still set to reopen on Monday, May 11.

Along with Quebec’s national director of public health Horacio Arruda, Legault made the decision to extend lockdown orders and economic closures due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus in Montreal.

Legault did not offer assurances that the May 25 date would be kept, but said businesses would be allowed to reopen if Montreal’s coronavirus situation is stable.

At time of writing, Quebec has now recorded 2,631 deaths and it was announced by health authorities on Thursday that the province’s confirmed cases have reached 35,238.

There have been nearly 265,000 coronavirus tests completed, and 8,673 confirmed recoveries. Recoveries are up 389 from Wednesday's report.

That’s an increase of 121 deaths from Wednesday’s report and the cases are up 911 from the previous day.

Quebec’s hospitals are currently treating 1,836 patients with coronavirus as of Thursday, which is a drop of four from the number reported on Wednesday. Of the hospital patients, 224 are currently in intensive care—an increase of 11 from Wednesday.

At the moment, there are 1,966 people waiting for test results in Quebec—up 726 from Wednesday.

Montreal is still the area of Quebec that has been hit hardest with 17,918 cases.