The government’s call for vaccination against COVID-19 appears to have paid off, with the campaign seeing a rebound in the past week. Quebec also reported on Monday a drop in hospitalizations, as well as a new death.
Posted at 11:45 a.m.
Quebec administers an average of 18,000 doses per day, or 7% more than last week. This rebound comes as the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, last week invited Quebecers to come and get a new booster dose as the cold season approaches.
He then said he hoped to see the current rate of 100,000 weekly doses increase in the coming weeks, in the face of a “steady increase in COVID cases for the past four weeks, especially among people aged 70 and over and health care workers. “.
This accelerated pace of the campaign even made it possible to slightly increase vaccination coverage. Taking into account the fact that Public Health now recommends getting vaccinated after five months, 20.5% of Quebecers currently have their vaccinations up to date. This represents a slight increase of 0.3 points over the past week.
The rebound in vaccination is mainly felt among people aged 60 and over, a group more vulnerable to COVID-19. This all comes as Pfizer’s bivalent vaccine adapted to the Omicron variant, specifically targeting the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants, has been available in Quebec since Monday for all people aged 12 and over. This is the second bivalent vaccine licensed in Canada, after Moderna’s in September.
At the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), we expect to receive a first delivery of 600,000 doses of the new vaccine, but other arrivals will be “planned on a regular basis thereafter”, affirms- we. All Quebecers who received a dose of vaccine more than five months ago, or who were infected more than three months ago, are invited to make an appointment.
Slight drop in hospitalizations
The new death reported on Monday brings the daily average calculated over seven days to six. The trend is down 4% over one week. Quebec also reported a drop of 33 hospitalizations on Monday. The 2,030 people currently hospitalized represent an increase of 9% over one week. In intensive care, the 53 patients represent an increase of 36% over one week.
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 24 more patients every day.
On Monday, there were also 3,527 health network workers absent due to the pandemic.
The 639 new cases reported on Monday bring the daily average to 935. The trend is thus up 3% 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 8.6%.
In addition to the cases detected by PCR tests, 1,050 people also reported over the weekend having tested positive on a rapid test. Self-reported cases, which are not included in daily reported cases, have increased by 10% for a week.
