Health officials ask Montrealers who've been to bars since July 1 to get tested for COVID-19

Montreal public health officials want everyone who has visited or worked at a bar in the city since the beginning of the month to get a COVID-19 test.Officials announced Saturday evening that at least eight cases have now been tied to fiveMontreal bars.

The city's downtown health board, however, didn't specify which bars were among the five.Montreal public health has been in touch with the bars' owners to let them know.

"We really felt it was important to put out a strong message today to the population of Montreal, regarding what we've seen in bars over the last few days," said Dr. David Kaiser of Montreal public health.

Kaiser said officials are expecting the number of cases linked to bars to grow in the coming days. "We know that there is a lot of contact between the different establishments and we wanted to get out in front of that quickly," he said.

A customer registry was launched Friday to keep track of bar patrons in the city to help prevent outbreaks, but that registry didn't exist when some of the people who later tested positive went to the bars in question.

Anyone who has been to a bar in Montreal since July 1 is being asked to call 514-644-4545.