The trend of increased cases of COVID-19 is being seen locally in Québec.  According to the CISSS des Laurentides regional health authority, as of Tuesday, September 22, there were seven active cases of COVID-19 in the MRC d’Argenteuil, which was an increase of five cases from September 15.  The number of cumulative cases of COVID-19 in the MRC d’Argenteuil is now 133 and the number of deaths in the region remains unchanged at nine.

The most recent figures for COVID-19 cases by municipality in Argenteuil are from September 17.  According to those figures, there were less than five active cases of COVID-19 in each of the MRC’s nine municipalities as of that date.

There were no schools in the region affected by cases of COVID-19 either.   As of September 15, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the MRC d’Argenteuil had remained at nine for several weeks.

There were no COVID-19 outbreaks at long-term care or retirement facilities or at schools across the MRC d’Argenteuil as of September 22.

Québec COVID-19 statistics

As of Tuesday, September 22, there were 68,617 cumulative cases of COVID-19 across Québec, which was an increase of 3,063 cases from 65,554 cumulative cases on September 15.  According to the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), 59,450 cases across Québec were resolved as of September 21, which means that approximately 86.6 per cent of the 68,617 cases were resolved, and that there were approximately 9,167 active cases of COVID-19 across Québec on September 22.

There were 168 COVID-19 patients in hospital across Québec as of September 22 and 28 of those patients were in intensive care.

As of September 22, there had been 5,805 confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 across Québec.  That was an increase of 20 deaths from September 15.

Retired teachers wanted

On Tuesday, September 22, Québec Minister of Education Jean-François Roberge announced a major financial incentive to encourage newly retired teachers to return to work and help school service centres fill the shortage of teachers resulting from the pandemic.

Teachers who have retired since July 1, 2015 will now be paid according to the salary scale that prevailed at the time of their departure, from their first day of supply work. Usually, this rate only applies after twenty days of supply within the school network.

A recently retired teacher will be able to receive, from their first day of supply, almost double the usual maximum remuneration, i.e. a maximum daily remuneration of approximately $412, compared to the usual maximum rate of $212.15, without penalty on their pension benefits.

While the number of vacant full-time teaching positions in the school network has decreased significantly compared to last year, some school service centres are struggling with a smaller bank of supply teachers than in previous years due to the pandemic. These banks are used to quickly find a substitute to replace regular teachers who are temporarily absent.