(Montreal) All Quebec adults are now allowed to make an appointment to receive their third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Posted at 8:54 a.m.
The Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, recently announced accelerations in the schedule of appointments so that more Quebecers can obtain a third dose quickly in the face of the surge of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
It was initially planned that people aged 18 and over would have to wait until January 21 to make an appointment. This date was brought forward for the first time to January 17 and a second time to this Friday.
Quebec has been facing for several days a sharp increase in the number of people hospitalized because of a COVID-19 infection, as well as a significant increase in the number of Quebecers killed by the disease.
The overload of hospitalizations and load shedding are depriving more and more patients of surgery, which can put their state of health at risk.
On Thursday, at a press conference, the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, said that the next weekend could be the hardest in the hospital system. However, he also said that according to experts, the number of infections is stabilizing, and that a peak in hospitalizations would be reached in a few days, hoping for a significant drop thereafter.
Last week, two projection models adopted by the National Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS) continued to forecast growth in new hospitalizations related to COVID-19 in Quebec.
Thursday, the number of hospitalizations linked to the coronavirus rose to 2,994 in Quebec, 117 more than the day before.