Deaths and hospitalizations related to COVID-19 continue to increase rapidly in Quebec. The province reports 16 new deaths Thursday and an increase of 37 people hospitalized.
Posted at 11:10 a.m.
Updated at 11:20 a.m.
The 16 new deaths reported on Thursday bring the daily average calculated over seven days to eight. The number of deaths has doubled in the past week.
Quebec also reports an increase of 37 hospitalizations on Thursday. The 1,534 people currently hospitalized represent an increase of 19% over one week. In intensive care, the 43 patients represent a stable trend over one week.
The number of people in hospital is likely to continue to rise in the coming days, with the number of admissions outpacing discharges. On average, there are 34 more patients every day.
In addition to the increasing number of COVID patients, staff absences due to the pandemic are also increasing the pressure on the health network. There are currently 7,318 health care workers absent due to COVID-19, whether they are on preventive withdrawal, in isolation or awaiting results, which is 10% more than last week.
The 1,755 new cases reported on Thursday bring the daily average to 1,351. The trend is thus up 18% 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 14.5%.
In addition to the cases detected by PCR tests, 1,423 people have also reported in recent days having obtained a positive result from a rapid test. Self-reported cases, which are not included in daily reported cases, have increased by 37% over the past week.
The revival of activity in the vaccination campaign continues. Quebec administers an average of 5,500 doses per day, or 51% more than last week. These are mostly people coming to pick up their fourth dose and, to a lesser extent, their third dose.
To date, 83.5% of Quebecers have received two doses, but only 52.6% have had three and 14.6% have received four.
