Quebec hairdresser 'crushed' by health minister's accusation she worked while knowing she had COVID-19

Quebec's health minister has offered a public apology to a Thetford Mines hairdresser he accused this week of working with vulnerable clients despite having COVID-19.

Christian Dubé spoke to the woman privately to say he was sorry. He says he plans to continue checking in on her.

"I told her I would call again a few times because I found this incident very unfortunate for me, for her, and I wanted to say publicly that I am sorry for what I did to her. It really wasn't my intention, it was a blunder and I apologized, and I'm apologizing publicly," he told a news conference in Quebec City.

His apology was quickly accepted.

The hairdresser was in the midst of doing a perm when Radio-Canada's Marc-Antoine Lavoie reached the 50-year-old, whose name is being withheld at her request as she fears further reprisal from the public.

"At some point, we have to move on, he can't spend the rest of his life apologizing," she said.

But she added it was important for Dubé to set the record straight on live television because the falsehood ''was widely broadcast and I think that as a respectable person, I had the right to have the positive side of the story be told." 

In an earlier interview Wednesday, the stylist said she'd never knowingly put others at risk.

"We know it's something serious. I'm in no way mean enough to wish that on someone," the 50-year-old hairdresser told Radio-Canada..

"I am crushed by what everybody is saying about me," she said.

The hairdresser says she went home the moment she started showing symptoms, continuing her effort to follow all of the public health guidelines. 

However, she already had served more than a dozen clients at six different locations by the time she started feeling unwell, including a private seniors' residence and a long-term care home.

Among her clients was her mother.

"When I visited my mom to style her hair in her room with the mask, I had no symptoms," she said, her voice wavering with emotion. 

"I had no intention of infecting anyone."

Regardless, her story caught the attention of Health Minister Christian Dubé who, during a news conference on Tuesday, said the hairdresser knew she was contagious when working.

He later walked back his remarks on Twitter, while still putting the onus on the population to follow public health restrictions.

"I have learned she was contagious without knowing it," the health minister tweeted Tuesday afternoon. 

"My message remains clear: Each individual has his share of responsibility and must respect the measures."

But the hairdresser is still feeling blamed for what happened as there were outbreaks in her wake.

More than 30 sick, 1 dead

Some 25 residents and 10 workers at the Le Crystal residence in Thetford Mines now have COVID-19. A resident of the CHSLD Saint-Alexandre and another at Les Jardins St-Alphonse, a private residence, also have the disease. 

There has even been one death.

The hairdresser said when she left work with fatigue and fever, she soon learned that her husband had been in contact with somebody who had tested positive.

Either way, the hairdresser doesn't understand how she could be responsible for the outbreaks because she wore a mask the entire time.

Now her salon has the green light from public health to reopen. She and her husband are out of isolation and feeling better.

But she's heartbroken by the situation and she hopes people will empathize with her. She accused local media of running with the story despite having limited information.

"I trust my clients," she said. "They have seen me working and they know I followed the instructions."