Quebec continues to experience a rollercoaster fall as the spread of COVID-19 appears to be slowing, but deaths remain high.
The province reported 18 pandemic-related deaths over the weekend, including four on Monday. This brings the daily average calculated over seven days to nine. The trend is thus up 23% over one week.
Quebec also reported a drop of 25 hospitalizations on Monday. The 1,937 people currently hospitalized, including 47 in intensive care, still represent an increase of 7% over one week. Of these, 634 patients were hospitalized directly due to their COVID-19 infection, the others having been admitted for another reason.
The number of people in hospital is expected to continue to rise over the next few days, with the number of admissions outpacing discharges. On average, there are 18 more patients every day.
The spread of COVID-19 appears to be slowing. The 686 new cases by PCR tests reported on Monday bring the daily average to 911. The trend is thus down 10% over one week. These numbers likely reflect only a portion of total infections, due to limited access to PCR testing. Moreover, the proportion of PCR screening tests proving positive for COVID-19 remains high, at 9.6%.
In addition to the cases detected by PCR tests, 510 people also reported over the weekend having tested positive on a rapid test. Self-reported cases, which are not included in daily reported cases, increased slightly by 3% over one week.
In hospitals, the number of workers absent due to the pandemic is on the rise. On Monday, there were 3,433 absences in the health network, or 22% more than a week ago.
Vaccination slows down
Meanwhile, the pace of the vaccination campaign continues to slow. Quebec administers an average of 16,400 doses per day, which is 13% less than last week.
The pace of the campaign nevertheless made it possible to increase vaccination coverage. Taking into account the fact that Public Health recommends getting vaccinated after five months, 28.0% of Quebecers currently have their vaccinations up to date. This represents an increase of 0.9 points over the past week.
