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The Montreal region had 439 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday and local public health officials now confirm community transmission of the virus is happening here.

Montreal’s regional public health department sent a notice to all regional health professionals on Tuesday confirming community spread and outlining new testing protocols to reflect this new phase in the health crisis.

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“The number of declared cases is progressing rapidly,” the statement reads. “Several family clusters and chains of transmission have been documented. In many cases, the investigation did not identify a source of exposure. There is therefore community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Montreal.”

SARS-CoV-2 virus is the scientific name for the new coronavirus that is causing the potentially deadly disease known as COVID-19. There have been 2,792 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across Canada, including 1,013 in Quebec. Twenty-seven people have died in Canada from the disease so far, including four in Quebec.