Hardest-hit region in Canada with over 1,600 deaths plans to reopen elementary schools and childcare facilities on 11 May

This article is more than 4 months old

This article is more than 4 months old

Justin Trudeau has urged caution as Canada’s most populous provinces announce plans to ease their lockdown measures, highlighting the challenge of balancing public health recommendations with a growing pressure to loosen coronavirus restrictions.

“The measures we’ve taken so far are working. In fact, in many parts of the country the curve has flattened,” Trudeau said on Tuesday. “But we’re not out of the woods yet. We’re in the middle of the most serious public health emergency Canada has ever seen and if we lift measures too quickly, we might lose the progress we’ve made.”

Quebec – the hardest-hit region in the country with more than 1,600 deaths – plans to reopen elementary schools and childcare facilities on 11 May. The province has opted to suspend the return of high school until autumn, fearing that 1 million students descending on schools could trigger a second wave of Covid-19 cases. But officials have acknowledged growing concerns the sustained lockdown could have on younger children.

Canada's bid to beat back coronavirus exposes stark gaps between the provinces Read more

“Life must go on,” said the premier, François Legault, adding that parents would not be required to send their children to school and that older teachers with health concerns would be permitted to work from home. On Tuesday afternoon, Quebec is set to announce plans for businesses to reopen.

Ontario, in contrast, has taken a far more cautious approach, announcing what the premier, Doug Ford, called a “road map” rather than “calendar” on Monday.

“The framework is about how we’re reopening – not when we’re reopening,” said Ford.

Unlike Quebec, the province will not name specific dates for when activities such as going to parks or offices can return to normal. Instead, Ontario’s framework is tied to expanded testing, the ability to rapidly trace new outbreaks and a sustained drop in new Covid-19 cases in the province’s hospitals. Ontario has so far recorded nearly 900 deaths from the coronavirus.

“Let me be crystal clear: as long as this virus remains a threat to Ontario, we will continue to take every precaution necessary,” said Ford on Monday.

Schools will remain closed until at least 31 May, but the province’s education minister, Stephen Lecce, has signalled that closure could extend further.

Both Ontario and Quebec, which shut down at roughly the same time in March, have grappled with a high rate of fatalities in long-term care homes , and have requested the federal government send the military to work in understaffed facilities.

Other regions of the country, including Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, have emerged largely unscathed from the outbreak, recording five deaths in all three provinces combined. Saskatchewan plans to reopen golf courses and campgrounds in May and New Brunswick will permit physical distancing guidelines to ease in the coming weeks.

Canada has recorded nearly 50,000 cases of the virus across the country, with more than 2,700 deaths.

On Tuesday, federal officials said previous models had underpredicted the fatality rate of the virus, as Covid-19 takes hold in long-term care facilities in the country. Nearly 80% of deaths in the country have occurred in these facilities.

By 5 May, updated forecasting suggests the country will have probably recorded between 3,300 and 3,900 death, said the chief public health officer, Dr Theresa Tam, warning that control measures like physical distancing were still required.

“Relaxing controls too early could squander our efforts to date and put us at risk for another outbreak,” she said.