Montreal declares state of emergency due to coronavirus

Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante is interested in using this state of emergency as a way to help the city's homeless population, who are particularly at risk from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. She called it "an important step" in dealing with the spreading virus. The order went into effect on Friday, March 27, at 4 pm.

It is section 42 of Quebec's Civil Protection Act that gives Montreal the ability to "quickly adopt measure to reduce the risks of COVID-19 outbreaks among homeless people," according to provincial health officials.

"At this moment, the most vulnerable in our society need us," Plante said. "The situation in day centres and shelters is very difficult, so it was important for us to find rapid and efficient solutions."

Plante said that "the city is not under lock down, not is it in quarantine." She noted that "if this happens one day, it'll be at the request of the Government of Quebec and the Health Department, and if it happens, if will be done in a coherent and orderly way—we're not at that point at all."

Additional emergency measures for the general population will be announced on Saturday, per Montreal's director of public health Mylene Drouin. These may include an expansion of powers bestowed upon police and other municipal authorities. In other localities, this has included enforced social-distancing and self-isolating.

Quebec has been under a public health emergency since last week, which was to facilitate the deployment of additional measures to contain and prevent the coronavirus from spreading.