Montreal Gazette reporter Aaron Derfel has been reporting and contextualizing the figures related to COVID-19 daily.
He has pushed for caution and care when it comes to reopenings and measures like social distancing throughout the pandemic.
however, the numbers that are coming out for the city of Montreal are making the veteran health reporter optimistic about things right now.
"Oh yeah, deifnitely. Today, we're seeing, this is for the island of Montreal, five deaths. You'll recall, at one point, the city was reporting daily numbers above a hundred deaths. This is just unbelievable," said Derfel.
The new numbers are certainly an improvement. Derfel cautions that things could change quickly if people do not properly maintain safety measures of social distancing, hand washing, and more, but also notes that Montreal is working towards a very good place.
"When you plot [the numbers] on a chart, whether it's looking at hospitalizations, number of cases, number of deaths, you see a mountain. You see it rising, that's the initial wave, and you see it going down. I think we are at the very tail end of the first wave. there might be situations where it could go back up again," said Derfel.
He does think we could see "mini waves" but that if people continue on the current path and continue to respect safety and health measures the situation could continue to improve.