The pressure continues to decrease in the health network, when Quebec reports Thursday 35 additional deaths due to the COVID-19. The vaccination campaign, still in slow motion, is the subject of readjustments by the government.
Posted at 11:01 a.m.
Updated at 11:18 a.m.
These 35 new deaths bring the daily average calculated over a week to 34. The trend is thus down 24% over a period of one week.
On Thursday, there was a drop of 36 hospitalizations, which translates into 193 new admissions and 229 discharges. To date, 2,312 patients remain hospitalized in connection with the virus, of which 173 are still in intensive care. This is a slight increase of two cases in 24 hours (18 entries, 16 exits).
Note: the decline in hospitalizations continues to slow, however. This slowdown is due to a stabilization of inputs while the number of outputs continues to decrease. The same phenomenon is observed in intensive care, where admissions tend to stabilize while discharges decrease.
For the time being, the 2,312 people hospitalized represent a drop of 12% over one week. The decrease in intensive care over one week is 9%.
In addition, authorities also reported 2,894 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the weekly daily average to 2,846 cases. The trend is thus down 11% over one week. However, it should be remembered that the limitations imposed on screening make these data much less representative in the province.
On Tuesday, Public Health carried out 27,360 screening tests, a relatively stable figure compared to the weekly average. So far, nearly 74,500 rapid tests have been “self-declared” on the Legault government platform, of which the vast majority, more than 57,740 of them, have tested positive for COVID-19.
“More supply than demand”
On the vaccination side, the pace of the campaign is still showing strong signs of losing momentum. On Wednesday, barely 31,770 doses were administered, to which must be added all the same 977 vaccines given before February 9 which had not yet been officially counted.
Thursday, the office of the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, recalled that “many Quebecers” – at least two million of them since the start of the fifth wave, according to public health estimates – “have caught COVID-19 around the holidays and are waiting for their 8 to 12 weeks to get their dose.
“We certainly don’t want vaccination capacity to lose momentum, when demand could go up or even when public health directives could change at any time, as we experienced last December. We will continue to adjust,” said press secretary Marjaurie Côté-Boileau.
Speaking of a “pivotal moment in vaccination”, Quebec confirms that it has “much more supply than demand at this stage” and says it is “redeploying” resources “towards other more targeted tasks, in particular for vaccination in schools “. “People who are mobilized in vaccination centers are mostly hired via the Je contribu platform. Since the start of the vaccination operation, we have done everything to ensure that nurses are in hospitals and living environments,” concludes Ms.me Cote-Boileau.
With Pierre-André Normandin