quebec Curfew Quebec police ready to nab curfew violators as province kicks off 4-week lockdown. Montreal police prepare for 'rigorous application' of public health measures, establishing curfew unit Smartphones across Quebec are going to buzz today with an emergency alert like no other: Be inside by 8 p.m., or face a fine. In an open letter posted to Facebook on Saturday morning, the province's premier said imposing an overnight curfew was a difficult, but necessary decision in order to limit the chances of Quebecers gathering illegally. "The main reason for the curfew is to prevent gatherings, even the smallest ones," wrote François Legault. "It's the addition of all the small breaches of the rules that feeds the virus." Police services across the province have been in discussions with the Public Security ministry, Quebec prosecutors and municipal officials since Wednesday's announcement. They have been planning out how the new, extraordinary rule will be enforced as police will have the power to stop and question anybody outdoors between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. "The police will also be very visible this weekend," the province's Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault said in a tweet Friday. "Let's stay at home, save lives." Those without a valid reason to be out between those hours could face fines of $1,000 to $6,000. wales Couple 'forced to lie' about having Covid symptoms to get tests which came back positive The pensioners from Swansea were convinced they had coronavirus but didn't match the NHS's 'approved' tell-tale signs A couple say they were forced to lie about having Covid-19 symptoms in order to get a test - which then came back positive. Eileen Francis said she started feeling unwell in late October, complaining that 'every bone in her entire body was hurting'. But when she and her husband Peter - who was also taken ill shortly afterwards - applied online for a free test they discovered they didn't have any of the three main symptoms stipulated by the NHS - a high temperature, a new and continuous cough, or loss or change in sense of smell or taste.

canada 'Lockdown light' failed in Canada's hardest-hit regions. Here's what experts say should happen now There's no getting around it — lockdown measures don't seem to be working in Ontario and Quebec the second time around. Health experts say Canada's hardest-hit provinces have consistently failed to contain the spread of COVID-19 with inadequate, poorly timed restrictions, leaving little choice but for much more draconian rules to be introduced. But where exactly did we go wrong? And where do we go from here? Despite declaring lockdowns as they'd done to control the spread of COVID-19 in the pandemic's first wave, Ontario and Quebec hesitated to impose strict enough measures to prevent an even deadlier second wave, some experts say. In the spring, when much of the country went into widespread, severely restrictive lockdowns to stop the mysterious spread of a new virus we knew little about, the high level of compliance was obvious. "Nobody was on the street. It was like a neutron bomb went off," said Dr. Michael Gardam, an infectious diseases expert in Toronto and senior medical adviser for Health PEI. "And if you compare that to today, the highways are full, there are people everywhere. There is so much more interpersonal contact now than there was back in the spring, and I think that's your answer — it's not the same lockdown at all."