Demers contemplates making COVID-19 face masks mandatory

The City of Laval, the municipality in Quebec that is the second-hardest hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, expects to receive up to 250,000 face masks from the provincial government for public distribution next Monday, municipal officials have announced.

According to some of the latest COVID-19 statistics, there are currently at least 4,894 cases of COVID-19 infection in Laval, and there have been 472 fatalities.

The 250,000 masks will be in addition to 60,000 which have been set aside for distribution throughout Laval’s public transit system.

On Wednesday this week, Mayor Marc Demers said he was not ruling out the possibility that wearing a face mask in public would be mandatory on Laval’s territory.

“We are evaluating it,” he said in a statement. “We are looking at the behavior of people and we are looking at where we will be going.”