Despite incessant warnings and now tickets and fines being handed out by the police, there are still people in Laval and other areas who aren’t getting the message about social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In one of the latest developments, the Laval Police intervened on the evening of Saturday April 4 to break up a small gathering of young adults who were playing basketball in a local park, in defiance of the rules now in place.
They were warned by the police that fines, ranging from $1,000 to $6,000, can now be imposed by the police on those who violate the regulations.
Seen here on Monday April 6, the Berge aux Quatre-Vents in Laval-Ouest is seeing a small amount of flooding this year.
Seen here on Monday April 6, the Berge aux Quatre-Vents in Laval-Ouest is seeing a small amount of flooding this year.
Seen here on Monday April 6, the Berge aux Quatre-Vents in Laval-Ouest is seeing a small amount of flooding this year.
Seen here on Monday April 6, the Berge aux Quatre-Vents in Laval-Ouest is seeing a small amount of flooding this year.
UPDATED: Monday April 6, 2020. (Pictures by anonymous reader)
With their plates already full while monitoring for outbreaks of COVID-19, Laval city officials have another challenge to deal with: spring flooding in Laval-Ouest and other areas of the region.
In Laval-Ouest, residents living near the edge of the Rivière des Mille Îles have been pressuring the city to install an inflatable water barrier as a preventive measure to stop flooding should there be a recurrence of it this year.
On Saturday April 4, rising waters from the river were beginning to edge over the low-lying Berge aux Quatre-Vents park on Riviera St., although the situation could hardly be considered alarming compared to recent past years.
Federal and provincial public safety and environmental officials don’t see the flooding situation as getting out of hand this year. In the meantime, the City of Laval is making sandbags available to residents who feel they might need them.
A man believed to be in his 30s disappeared beneath the waters of the Rivière des Prairies just off Île Paton in Chomedey during the late afternoon of Friday April 3 after he waded in while trying to pull his dog from the partly frozen river.
According to the Laval Police, the dog fell in and the man then entered the water to try and rescue it. Although no one saw the man re-emerge from the river, the dog made it back to shore.
The Laval Fire Department, which is well-equipped to deal with accidents on the rivers surrounding Laval, was on the scene conducting a search Friday evening, although there was no word by Saturday morning that they had found anything.
Quality Suites is reporting on the web that its Laval hotel just off Autoroute 15 is “closed temporarily” while an overflow of mental health and palliative patients from the Cité de la Santé hospital are housed there after being displaced because of the COVID-19 situation.
The move was initiated by officials at the CISSS de Laval who had an overflow of 133 patients resulting from an increasing number of COVID-19 patients.
One floor at the Quality Suites has been designated exclusively for palliative patients, while another is for those with mental illness.
The facility is currently closed to the public, with the exception of CISSS workers, patients and their families.
Laval-Les Îles MP Fayçal El-Khoury is seen here outside the CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée with some of the protective facial masks and other supplies that were donated.
Laval-Les Îles Liberal MP Fayçal El-Khoury, whose wife Dr. Georgette Elias has a dental practice in Montreal, was able to deliver some protective facial masks, vinyl gloves and other supplies to the CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée on April 2.
He and his wife both agreed the crucial items were much more needed at the long-term care facility where staff and residents are coping with the COVID-19 outbreak.
This map issued by the CISSS de Laval shows the locations of COVID-19 infections up to April 3.
The Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de Laval announced on April 3 that there had been a total of seven deaths in the Laval region from COVID-19 up to that date.
According to the CISSS, up to April 3 there were 476 confirmed cases, 31 hospitalizations, 5 cases in intensive care and 58 cases confirmed among CISSS de Laval employees.
The largest number of COVID-19 infections was at Cité de la Santé hospital (44) and at CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée (26).
Seen here on March 31, the Récréathèque on Curé-Labelle Blvd. in Chomedey is finally being demolished to make way for a new residential complex.
COVID-19 crisis or not, demolition of the old and abandoned Récréathèque in Laval’s Chomedey district is now proceeding as announced last year, to make way for an eight-storey, 347-unit residential building. Many generations of people from Laval, as well those who’ve travelled along Curé Labelle Blvd. while heading north on Route 117, have lasting memories of the Récréathèque. The new building is a project by Montreal property developer Shafiraman Weiss’s Vertex Construction.
The current issue of the Laval News volume 28-06 published March 18th, 2020, (Laval’s English Newspaper) covers local events such as politics, sports and human-interest stories. It features editorials and other columns. Click on the image to read the paper.
Front page of Laval News, Vol. 28-06 March 18, 2020
