While Quebec is breaking records for active cases every day, hospitals are seeing a slight increase in the number of patients admitted after contracting COVID-19.
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The majority of them are not vaccinated, notes Dr. Bernard Mathieu, emergency physician at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.
“We can really see that the vaccine, even if it is less effective in preventing infection, it is still very effective in preventing more serious diseases,” says Dr. Mathieu.
Testing centers are crowded day after day.
And even in private screening clinics, we have been going at full speed for a few weeks. TVA Nouvelles that of Medfuture, in Mirabel, where about 250 people come for a test every day.
About three in four people arrive at this clinic after receiving a positive result on a rapid test. They therefore agree to pay up to $ 200 for a more reliable result.
“For the antigen tests (…) In a few minutes, people receive their results by email directly. And for PCR tests, until yesterday, we were less than four hours waiting with our private partner laboratories, ”explains Medfuture’s director of operations, Éric Latendresse.
The latter adds that since Thursday, the time to receive his result oscillates more between 24 to 48 hours.