After admitting he was worried about Montreal, Quebec’s premier is expected to provide an update on the province’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday afternoon.

François Legault said on Monday that the “situation is not under control” in the Greater Montreal area, where COVID-19 deaths and cases continue to climb.

There are still two weeks before elementary schools, daycares and businesses reopen in the hard-hit region, but Legault said he is open to delaying the date again. The government has started to gradually relaunch parts of the education and business sectors in most regions.

However, the premier said that Montreal, which has become the epicentre of the virus in Canada, will not be isolated from the rest of the province despite calls to do so.

“I don’t want Quebecers to start fighting with one another and for there to be divisions between Montreal and the rest of Quebec,” Legault said.

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Quebec leads the country with fatalities attributable to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, as the death toll surpassed 3,000 on Monday.

It is also the province with the highest caseload, with hundreds of new infections reported each day. There are 38,469 cases as of Monday.

— With files from the Canadian Press

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