Hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 continue their descent on Friday, now approaching the threshold of 2,000 patients. However, the province is reporting 22 additional deaths and 1,243 new infections.
Posted at 11:03 a.m.
Updated at 11:17 a.m.
These 22 new deaths reported on Friday bring the daily average calculated over seven days to 18. The trend is down 22% over a period of one week.
On Friday, there was a drop of 68 hospitalizations in the regular care network, which stems from 127 hospital admissions and 195 discharges. To date, 2,051 patients remain hospitalized, 60 of whom are still in intensive care, a decrease of four cases in 24 hours in this regard (six entries, ten exits).
For now, the 2,051 people currently hospitalized represent a decrease of 10% over one week. In intensive care, the 60 patients represent a drop of 26% over one week.
On the current trend, the number of people hospitalized is expected to continue to decline over the next few days, with the number of discharges continuing to outpace admissions. On average, there are 34 fewer patients every day.
Interestingly, approximately 43% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients were admitted due to the coronavirus. Conversely, 57% of patients were hospitalized for another reason but tested positive for COVID-19. In intensive care, this same proportion is 65-35%.
Transmission and rapid tests
Quebec also reports 1,243 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the daily average to 1,292. The trend is thus down 26% over one week. These numbers likely reflect only a portion of total infections due to limited access to PCR testing. On Wednesday, Public Health nevertheless carried out 16,518 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 9%. In addition to the cases detected by PCR tests, 558 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 34% over the past week.
So far, more than 203,865 rapid tests have been self-reported on the platform of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS), of which more than 166,820 have presented a positive result for COVID-19. Some 7,337 health care workers are still absent from the network for reasons related to COVID-19, either for preventive withdrawal, isolation, or because they are awaiting screening results.
On the vaccination side, 26,578 additional doses were administered Thursday in Quebec, to which are added 1,485 vaccines given before May 5 which had not yet been officially counted.
With Pierre-André Normandin