A single day of relaxation, and it is the contaminations curve that soars: the experience of the Canadian Thanksgiving, last October 12, has a warning value for the rest of the world, where families are preparing to go. find for the end of year celebrations.
On the occasion of the celebration of ” the action of grace “ – the name of Canadian Thanksgiving – Canadians enjoy a three-day weekend, conducive to family reunion around roast turkey with its fall vegetables. By mid-September, the second wave of Covid-19 had already hit the country, with an average of 838 new cases reported daily and a total of 138,010 Covid-19 cases. As of October 12, Thanksgiving, Canada has 181,864 cases; two weeks later, on the 27th, he deplored 220,213.
” This sudden increase is multifactorial, explains Santiago Perez, infectious disease specialist at Kingston General Hospital (Ontario), but the impact of family gatherings on Thanksgiving day is a reality: from that day forward we have lost control of the spreading pandemic “. On October 27, Canada’s Public Health Assistant Howard Njoo agreed, “In some areas we learn that the gatherings during the Thanskgiving weekend have contributed to the increase in the number of cases that we are seeing today”. On the same day, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta broke their records for daily cases of contamination, and Canada passed the 10,000 death mark since the start of the pandemic.
” To resist to the temptation “
Students, returning for the first time since starting school with their parents, sometimes passing from one province to another, grandparents tasting the pleasure of welcoming their children again, have defied and rendered ineffective the new measures of restrictions imposed by several provinces at the very beginning of autumn, such as the ban on seeing relatives or the closure of bars and restaurants.
The political and health authorities had nevertheless multiplied the warnings at the approach of the fateful day: François Legault, the premier of Quebec, called on his fellow citizens to ” to resist to the temptation “ to see the world, his counterpart from Ontario, Doug Ford, after being delighted to foresee a “Family dinner with ten people”, had had to publicly change his mind to comply with his own government’s recommendations and stick to celebrating Thanksgiving with the only members of his family living under his roof. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had suggested that everyone cancel all gatherings, “ to give yourself a chance for Christmas “.
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