Simard said on karaoke night the singer is meant to remain two metres from other patrons, but the entire crowd often joins in a singalong. Girard, adding that the situation in the bar was an “explosive cocktail.”īar Kirouac, a 100-person-capacity establishment with plywood over the front window, is frequented by regulars who mostly know each other. “The rate of attack, the proportion of positives is significant,” said Dr. Owner Lucien Simard estimated that 35 to 40 patrons and one staff member were there. Officials don’t know precisely how many people were in Bar Kirouac. “One infected person went on a grand tour,” said Jacques Girard, the interim provincial director of public health for the Quebec City region. Quebec City public-health investigators are still trying to confirm how far the virus spread since several infected bar patrons visited at least six other local pubs after the karaoke night. Most of the cases appear to be isolated but the government is not yet providing official data. Across the province, news outlets, unions and administrators report at least two dozen cases among Quebec’s nearly one million students and tens of thousands of education staff. School administrators in Quebec City sent home more than 100 classmates of infected children as a preventative measure. Most Quebec students have gone back to school over the past week. A follow-up investigation has found that bar patrons passed along secondary infections to at least 10 family members, including a total of three students at three schools. 23 at Bar Kirouac in Quebec City’s lower town. The city’s public-health officials say tests confirmed Wednesday that COVID-19 infected at least 40 adults on Aug.

Infected patrons from a coronavirus superspreading event at a karaoke night in a Quebec City bar have transmitted the virus to at least three schoolchildren, illustrating how risky-but-permitted activities can imperil the return to school.

Bar one karaoke