New day, same trend. While hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 continue to rise in Quebec on Wednesday, the province has recorded 26 additional deaths and 2,330 new infections. However, the vaccination campaign is gaining momentum.
Posted at 11:01 a.m.
Updated at 11:24 a.m.
These 26 new deaths reported on Wednesday bring the daily average calculated over seven days to 21. The trend is up 7% over a period of one week.
In the health network, there was an increase of 100 hospitalizations in regular care, resulting from 235 new admissions and 135 discharges. To date, 2,381 patients therefore remain hospitalized in connection with the virus, of which 101 are still in intensive care, a figure that has remained stable compared to the previous day (16 entries, 16 exits).
For now, the 2,382 people currently hospitalized represent an increase of 16% over one week. In intensive care, the 101 patients represent a 22% increase 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 continuing to outpace discharges. On average, there are 46 more patients every day.
Note: 43% of patients with COVID-19 currently hospitalized (981 people) were admitted due to the coronavirus. Conversely, 57% of patients were hospitalized for another reason but tested positive for COVID-19. In intensive care, 63% of patients are admitted due to COVID-19, and 37% for another reason.
Focus on transmission
Quebec also reports 2,330 new reported cases on Wednesday, bringing the daily average to 2,347. The trend is thus down 24% over one week. It should be remembered, however, that figures are likely to reflect only a portion of total infections, due to limited access to PCR testing. On Monday, Public Health nevertheless carried out 18,025 screening tests, a relatively stable figure compared to the weekly average.
Moreover, the proportion of PCR screening tests proving positive for COVID-19 remains very high, at 14.5%. In addition to the cases detected by PCR tests, 2,137 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, are down 38% over the past week.
So far, more than 187,050 rapid tests have been self-reported on the web platform of the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS). Of these, 152,390 of them tested positive for COVID-19.
On the vaccination side, the Quebec campaign is picking up a bit of a stripe. More than 33,660 additional doses were administered on Tuesday, to which are added just over 350 vaccines given before April 19 which had not yet been counted. The province is approaching the threshold of 19.5 million doses administered since the start of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, the Comité sur l’immunisation du Québec (CIQ) had indicated in a new opinion that it would be “preferable” to use messenger RNA vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna, than to opt for the pharmaceutical vaccine. Quebec-based Medicago, authorized by Health Canada at the end of February and a plant-based product, a first in the world.
With Pierre-André Normandin
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- 10,830
- According to government figures, just over 10,830 health care workers are still absent from the network, either because they are isolated, on preventive withdrawal or awaiting a screening result.
Ministry of Health and Social Services