Hospitalizations related to COVID-19 continue their steady decline on Monday, now approaching the threshold of 1,900 patients, as the province records four additional deaths and 622 new infections.
Posted at 11:17 a.m.
These four new deaths reported on Monday bring the daily average calculated over seven days to 19. The trend is stable over a period of one week.
On Monday, there was a drop of 16 hospitalizations, which stems from 85 new admissions and 101 discharges. To date, 1,910 patients remain hospitalized, 66 of whom are still in intensive care, a figure that has remained stable compared to the previous day (nine admissions, nine discharges).
For now, the 1,910 people currently hospitalized represent a drop of 12% over one week. In intensive care, the 66 patients represent a drop of 15% 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 37 fewer patients every day.
Interestingly, approximately 42% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients were admitted due to the coronavirus. Conversely, 58% of patients were hospitalized for another reason but tested positive for COVID-19. In intensive care, this same proportion is 59-41%.
Transmission and rapid tests
Quebec also reports 622 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the daily average to 1,143. The trend is thus down 25% over one week. These numbers likely reflect only a portion of total infections, due to limited access to PCR testing. On Saturday, Public Health nevertheless carried out 10,694 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 7.6%. In addition to the cases detected by PCR tests, 1,223 people also reported over the weekend having tested positive on a rapid test. Self-reported cases, which are not included in daily reported cases, are down 29% over the past week.
So far, more than 205,280 rapid tests have been self-reported on the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) platform. Of these, more than 168,045 tested positive for the disease.
Some 6,357 health care workers are still absent for reasons related to COVID-19, either preventive withdrawal, isolation, or because they are still awaiting screening results.
On the vaccination side, 7,586 additional doses were administered on Sunday. The vaccination campaign continues to slow rapidly, with fewer and fewer requests for fourth doses. Quebec administers an average of 19,000 doses per day, down 27% over the past week. To date, 83.3% of Quebecers have received two doses, but only 51.7% have three and 10.8% have four doses. Including people vaccinated outside the province, it is now approaching the milestone of 20 million doses administered since the start of the pandemic.
With Pierre-André Normandin