(Montreal) The Quebec government is suspending the public activities of its ministers due to the increase in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant.
With the exception of public health press briefings, press conferences and the activities of ministers in the regions are canceled.
This was confirmed by the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to push to the top in Quebec.
According to data released Sunday by the Ministry of Health, 3,846 new cases have been identified since the previous report. This is a new high for the province. Authorities have identified 485,834 infections since the start of the pandemic.
At this rate, the half-million figure should be reached before Christmas.
The pandemic also attacks people who have been vaccinated. The health ministry says 2,530 newly infected people have been adequately vaccinated for at least seven days. However, it is not yet clear from the data when they received this second dose. COVID-19 is also reported to have struck 1,131 unvaccinated people.
The average of new cases over the past seven days stands at 2,820, an increase of more than 73% from last Sunday.
Three new deaths have been added to the death toll. We now deplore 11,639 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its appearance in Quebec.
The situation continues to worsen in hospitals where the number of patients has increased from 347 to 376. There are 79 people in intensive care, five more than the day before.
The number of active outbreaks also increased, from 1,322 to 1,353
A total of 45,493 analyzes were performed on December 17. The positivity rate jumped a percentage point to 9.9.
No less than 48,056 doses of vaccine have been administered over the past 24 hours, including 8,943 first doses to children aged 5 to 11 years and 35,991 booster doses.
The percentage of people aged 5 years and over who received a first dose is still around 88%. It is also reported that approximately 81% of the Quebec population received a second dose and that approximately 8% received a booster dose.
The Ministry of Health indicates that due to public holidays it will not publish its dashboard with daily data or a press release on it on December 24, 25 and 26 or December 31, 1er and January 2, 2022.