Police were once again busy with 800 more inspections in the red zone.
On Monday morning, Montreal police announced they handed out 58 tickets over the past seven days— a considerable dip from last week when police reported they issued 109 tickets.
The island of Montreal remains under red-zone restrictions, which prevents parties and limits personal contacts outside the home— but not everyone is following the rules.
And it isn't just the Montreal police that has been busy...
Last week we reported that police in the Outaouais region of Quebec fined 83 international students $1,000 each after breaking up an Airbnb house party in Chelsea, Que. The gathering attracted students from several post-secondary institutions that had travelled from Ottawa, Montreal, Sherbrooke, and Trois-Rivières.
This past weekend, police raided a warehouse party in Ahuntsic-Cartierville Friday night and fined another 83 people for breaking COVID-19 social distancing health measures.
According to Global News, “authorities say the 83 individuals were identified and could be fined up to $5,000 each, in addition to being fined for not having a liquor licence”.
The question now is, what are the odds that police would break up two random parties two weeks in a row that each had 83 people?
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This news came as Quebec reported 1,037 new COVID-19 cases on Monday morning, and 12 more deaths as hospitalizations rose slightly.
Of the twelve deaths, one occurred in the last 24 hours; eight took place between Oct. 26 and Oct. 31 and three occurred before Oct. 26.
As of Monday morning, the provincial total of COVID-19 cases now stands as 108,018 with 6,273 deaths.
Quebec health officials say they are withdrawing one death from their total because it was found not to be attributable to COVID-19.
Hospitalizations increased by three, to a total of 499, with 81 people in intensive care.
Montreal once again recorded more cases than any other region with 224, followed by the Montérégie (173) and Lanaudière (140).
“The number of cases continues to hold steady at about 1,000,” Health Minister Christian Dubé said via Twitter. “It is to decrease the number of (new) cases that we must continue our efforts to prevent hospitalizations and deaths.”