Quebec reported 875 new cases of COVID-19 and no deaths on Sunday. Hospitalizations are on the rise.
The 875 new cases bring the daily average calculated over seven days to 894. The trend is thus upwards by 32% over one week.
The unvaccinated continue to represent the majority of new cases. These represent on average 515 new cases per day, against 339 for the unvaccinated. The infection rate is thus 296 new cases per million unvaccinated, against 51 per million adequately vaccinated.
In the absence of additional deaths, the daily average is two per day. The trend is thus stable over a week.
Increase in hospitalizations
The number of hospitalizations has increased to a total of 216 people now, 11 more than the day before. There are now 48 people in intensive care, a stable number compared to Saturday.
The incidence rate of hospitalizations is higher among unvaccinated people.
Quebec has observed a rate of 5.7 new hospitalizations per million unvaccinated, compared to 1.3 per million fully vaccinated.
The number of tests performed on Saturday stood at 28,692. The positivity rate is 3.2%, still below the 5% threshold recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
To date, more than 77,000 cases of worrying variants have been identified in Quebec since the start of the pandemic, including 45,661 cases of the Alpha variant and 30,772 of the Delta variant. Quebec has not yet registered an Omicron variant, classified Friday as “worrying” by the WHO.
Resumption of vaccination
The Ministry of Health indicates that 20,000 additional injections were given in 5 to 11 year olds and 937 third doses were given in people 70 years and older.
To date, just over 50,538 young people aged 5 to 11 have had their first dose, or 7.7% of this age group.
The pace of the vaccination campaign has picked up again in the past few days, as children aged 5 to 11 began receiving their first dose on Wednesday, after the authorization required by Health Canada on November 19.
So far, 85% of the population has received their first dose, 81% their second and 3% their third.
With Pierre-André Normandin, La Presse