28-day challenge: No friends to break COVID’s second wave

A surge of COVID-19 cases bumps several regions into the red zone

The Quebec Minister of Public Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, announced during his press conference on Sept. 25 that he is putting all yellow and orange zones up to a 28-day challenge to limit social interactions, while the red-zones of Quebec City, Chaudiere-Appalaches and Montreal are obliged to complete a mandatory 28-day quarantine.

The goal of the challenge is to abstain from all and any social gatherings that are considered non-essential. That includes: parties, weddings, and gatherings alongside family and friends. This includes any unnecessary travels to different regions for the next 28-days.

Dubé expressed optimism in his 28-day challenge by asking all Quebec citizens to join the challenge. He explained that while this is an extra effort alongside all that citizens are already doing, he explains that with the three new regions as classified red-zones, they need to be even more restrictive in their measures. Dubé said on Radio-Canada’s talk show, “what we are going to tell people is going to be: stay home.”

“What we are asking you is to make a special effort to limit our social contacts, and I am saying it, for the next 28 days. If we do it in the time that I specify today, I think it will encourage people to understand that yes this is an extra effort, but there can be an end to this. I repeat, what we are asking you to do is a special effort to limit your contacts, what we call social contacts, for the next 28-days. This is for one month; it is not permanent.”

The implementation of this challenge came as a result of an immense surge of cases over the weekend, with Dubé confirming two cities would escalate from an orange to red alert on Radio-Canada’s talk show. According to the Quebec government’s website, as of the beginning of the red zone on Thursday the total number of confirmed cases is over 3,238 in the past three days. As of October 3, there are a whopping 78,459 total provincial cases since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.

Dubé highly encourages all regions to join in the challenge, no matter if they are in a green, yellow or orange zone, deeming it absolutely essential to kick-start our province’s recovery process. He also took time to state that if the 28-day challenge cannot be followed, citizens should rigorously abide by the newly updated public health implementations during any and all forms of social contact.   

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