COVID-19 hospitalizations in Quebec drop for a week straight, lowest numbers since October

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MONTREAL — Quebec COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care numbers dropped for a seventh straight day on Friday, and the number of patients receiving care in the province's hospitals is at its lowest point since October.

Health authorities announced that 23 fewer people are receiving care for the novel coronavirus in hospitals, dropping to 437. Of those, 106 people are in intensive care, a decrease of one.

The last time hospitalization numbers were this low was October 12 when an equivalent number of people were in hospital.

QUEBEC NUMBERS STABLE

The number of positve COVID-19 cases increased by 752 to start the holiday weekend, bringing the overall number of infections since the start of the pandemic to 366,394.

Of those, 348,694 are reported to have recovered from the disease, an increase of 752.

The Quebec Institute of Public Health (INSPQ) is reporting that there are 6,625 active COVID-19 cases in the province, which is the lowest number of active cases since Sept. 28 when 6,293 were reported.

Quebec also added nine more deaths due to the novel coronavirus on Friday, including six between May 14 and May 19 and three before May 14. There were no deaths reported in the past 24 hours, according to the province.

Since the pandemic began, 11,075 people in Quebec have died due to COVID-19.

On May 19, 33,373 samples were analyzed.

VACCINATION CAMPAIGN

Quebec health-care professionals administered 110,513 more vaccine doses, including 107,261 in the past 24 hours.

Since the campaign began, 4,747,192 Quebecers have received at least one dose of a vaccine, which is 52.4 per cent of the population.

REGIONAL DATA

Montreal remained the only region that reported more than 100 new positive COVID-19 cases on Friday with the region reporting 267 new (129,866 total). It's the first time Montreal has surpassed 200 new cases since May 15.

The other high increases in cases were reported in the Eastern Townships (74 new, 14,370 total), Outaouais (71 new, 12,000 total), Monteregie (69 new, 50,238 total), and Chaudiere-Appalaches (64 new, 18,607 total).

Five deaths were reported in Montreal (4,723 total), three in Chaudiere-Appalaches (346 total), and one death was reported in Quebec City (1,105 total).