Early in pandemic Quebec didn't follow expert advice to expand quarantine order

In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in Quebec, the provincial government ignored a recommendation from public health officials to expand the scope of aquarantine order directed at returning travelers, according to documents obtained by Radio-Canada.

On March 12, Premier FranoisLegault suggested that all incoming travelers to the province isolate themselves for 14 days. For health and education workers returning to Quebec, the isolation period was mandatory.

But the measurewasn't retroactive, even though thousands of Quebecers had just returned from abroad when spring break ended on March 6.

Thereturning travelers especially those coming from Europe and the U.S. were the sourceof the firstwave of reportedCOVID-19infections in Quebec.

At 7:09 a.m. onMarch 13, the top public health official in Montreal, Mylne Drouin, sent an email to the senior public health official in the province, Horacio Arruda.

Shewanted the isolation to be retroactive for health-care workers, saying it was a "critical moment" for the system.

"I think it has to be retroactive for those who are really in contact with patients because we now have a lot of cases of personnel who have returned from break and who, since last night,have developedsymptoms,"Drouinsaid in the email, which Radio-Canada obtained through an access-to-information request.

Arrudareplied, saying "Ok."

But this recommendation was never implementedby the Legault government.

Several experts who have studied the epidemic in Quebec believe infected workers helped spread the disease within the health-care system, particularly in long-term care homes.

Advice on daycares also disregarded

In her March 13 exchanges with Arruda, Drouin also advocated that daycares be kept open, given their staff did not have a spring break. Daycares could be protected, she said, by more targeted isolation and closure orders.

Arruda indicated in hisreply email that he also agreed with this proposal. "I won't close daycares for the moment," he wrote to Drouin at 7:14 a.m.

But that recommendation too was disregarded. Just a few hourslater, the Legault government announced daycareswould close.

Legault has said repeatedly in the past that he always follows Arruda's recommendations. "I listen to him like he's my mother," the premier said at one point.

The email exchanges accessed by Radio-Canada, however, raise questions about the Legault government's willingness to follow the advice of its own experts.

"They told us they listen to public health, but that's not the case. We want answers," said the leader of the Opposition Liberals, Dominique Anglade.

Both Qubec Solidaire and the Parti Qubcois also called on the government to be more transparent about its decision-making process.

Legault's office responds

Drouin's office declined an interview request from Radio-Canada. Legault's office also initially declined to comment.

But after the Radio-Canada story appeared Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the government saidthat the opinions Arruda expresses tohis fellow public-health officials do not themselves constitute official recommendations.

The recommendations, the spokesperson said,are only finalizedlater, following a discussion with the premier.

"We never took a decision that went against the wishes of Dr. Arruda," Legault's spokesperson,Ewan Sauves, told Radio-Canada.

But Sauvesalso acknowledged thatArrudasometimes changeshis positions during his conversations with Legault.