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Regional Update: Four new COVID-19 cases, but no additional deaths
CARLETON –The Gaspé Peninsula and the Magdalen Islands Public Health Board is reporting four new cases of COVID-19, bringing the regional total to 66.
Out of that total, 39 cases are linked to the Manoir du Havre outbreak in Maria. Two residents of that private home for seniors have died as a result of that outbreak. There are also 143 people in quarantine so far, in connection with that outbreak says Dr. Iv Bonnier-Viger, director general of the Public Health Board.
He notes that five people from the Gaspé Peninsula and the Magdalen Islands with COVID-19 are currently hospitalized in Quebec City
Meanwhile, two more employees of the E. Gagnon et Fils crab processing plant in Sainte-Thérèse-de-Gaspé have tested positive for the coronavirus. They were not among those quarantined after the first employee received a positive test on April 4.
A fisherman’s helper working on one of the company’s boats has also tested positive. The plant, which was supposed to resume production on April 8 is now closed for a longer period.
“It will be closed for at least a week. Crab fishing in zone 12 (the Southern Gulf of Saint Lawrence) is delayed a bit. It will be stormy over the weekend and the Fisheries and Oceans Canada call for the season opening will only take place on April 13. It cannot start less than 72 hours after the call and at least 48 additional hours are needed to land crab. That puts us on the 18th of April, best case scenario. By then, the plant will have been closed for two weeks and the new coronavirus cases resulting from the people who are currently infected will be known. I would like more people to be tested though,” explains E. Gagnon et Fils Vice President Bill Sheehan.
In Rivière-au-Renard, the Entreprises maritimes Bouchard shipyard posted on its facebook page that one of its employees has also tested positive for the COVID-19 and that boat building activities will be stopped for two weeks.
Dr. Bonnier-Viger points out that with the arrival of milder spring days, people are tempted to get together on the region’s wharves. “It is okay to go, but the two-metre distance must still be respected. It is the equivalent of two arm lengths.” He also stresses that house cleaning duties carried out by employees of specialized businesses and non-profit organizations can be delayed when the house occupants are aged 70 or more, since the house cleaning staff goes from one house to another. “Logic dictates that minimal maintenance can be done without the use of attendants.”
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Regional update: Second COVID-19 death in the Gaspé Peninsula and Magdalen Islands
MARIA: – The death of a second senior citizen attributable to COVID-19 was reported on April 6 by the Gaspé Peninsula and Magdalen Islands Public Health Board.
Just a day after Gustave Joseph’s death, a woman died at Maria hospital from complications linked to the coronavirus. Before being hospitalized, she too was a resident of the Manoir du Havre in Maria, the only major source of COVID-19 outbreak in the region so far.
The director general of the region’s Public Health Board, Dr. Iv Bonnier-Viger, points out that the victim was suffering from “serious illnesses” prior to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Dr. Bonnier-Viger is reporting eight new cases of COVID-19 in the region, which brings the total to 62. Some of the new cases are people that were identified during the epidemiological investigations triggered at the end of March in connection with the Manoir du Havre outbreak.
According to a count made public on April 5 (Sunday), 39 cases of COVID-19 originated from the Manoir du Havre outbreak. An updated count specific to that private residence for seniors was not available mid-afternoon on Monday.
Dr. Bonnier-Viger specifies that some of the new cases involve people that were already being followed by the Public Health Board and are not linked with the Manoir du Havre outbreak.
There is consequently still no community transmission of the coronavirus in the Gaspé Peninsula and Magdalen Islands, the origins of the 62 cases have been retraced.
Meanwhile, Dr. Bonnier-Viger cannot confirm how many additional people will be placed in quarantine following the case of an infected employee of the E. Gagnon et Fils snow crab processing plant, located in Sainte-Thérèse-de-Gaspé.
The case was confirmed on Saturday and the plant was closed until April 7 inclusively. According to Bill Sheehan, vice-president of E. Gagnon et Fils, “a family link can be made between people that were infected at the Manoir du Havre and the plant employee.”
Dr. Bonnier-Viger explains that “the plant had already adopted the required means to avoid transmission,” and he is therefore “not worried about the resumption of production. Experts looked at the (prevention) measures to be adopted. Those measures were already in place,” he says, referring to the period prior to the positive test of the infected employee.