Quebec reports 42 new deaths related to COVID-19, hospitalizations drop by 93

No more masks in Quebec schools? The Quebec government is considering lifting the mask mandate in classrooms across the province.

Quebec is reporting another decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations on Thursday, but the province is still adding dozens of deaths every day as the pandemic’s fifth wave subsides.

Provincial data shows 42 more people died due to COVID-19, for a total of 13,378 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Hospitalizations dropped by 93 for a total of 2,637. There are now 191 people in intensive care, a decrease of 13 from the previous day.

Unvaccinated people represent 35 per cent of the patients in the ICU, even though they represent less than 10 per cent of the population in Quebec, according to health ministry data from the previous four weeks.

Based on the last 28 days of data, the ministry of health says unvaccinated people are 5.9 times more likely to be hospitalized and 10.6 times more likely to be sent to the ICU compared to double-vaccinated people.

The positivity rate in Quebec is 12.3 per cent and there are currently 1,394 active outbreaks across the province.

However, official test numbers are no longer reliable, as PCR testing is not available to the general public, which means the true number of daily cases in Quebec is unknown.

The province's health ministry recorded 3,592 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, adding that 963 positive rapid test results were included in the daily numbers on Thursday. People can now report their own rapid test results via Quebec's new online platform.

Health-care workers analyzed 30,390 test samples on Feb. 1

Education Minister Jean-François Roberge announced Thursday that Quebec is gearing up to distribute 3.5 million COVID-19 rapid test kits to students in high schools, adult centres and vocational training programs.

VACCINATION UPDATE

Another 48,947 vaccine doses were administered in Quebec in the past 24 hours, for a total of 17,838,886 total doses. An additional 281,899 shots have been given to Quebecers outside of the province throughout the pandemic.

Nearly 70 per cent of the doses given out in the past 24 hours (34,099 doses) were booster shots.

So far, health-care workers have administered 7,382,303 first doses, covering 90 per cent of the eligible population; 6,895,474 second doses, covering 84 per cent of the eligible population; and 3,765,991 third doses, covering 46 per cent of the eligible population.