Quebec reports 756 new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations up by 10

Protecting against COVID in anti-vax communities Dr. Paul Le Guerrier of Montreal Public Health talks COVID-19 concerns in communities where vaccine hesitancy is high.

Montreal — Quebec reported on Monday that 756 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 as the province saw a slight spike in hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.

Two people have also died from the disease, bringing the total number of deaths to 11,576 since the start of the pandemic.

Quebec's health minister, Christian Dubé, and Dr. Horacio Arruda, the director of public health, are holding a press conference at 1 p.m. in Montreal on Monday to provide an update on COVID-19 in Quebec.

Canadian health officials are monitoring the spread of the new coronavirus variant, classified as Omicron, which was first confirmed in Ottawa on Sunday from two travellers who returned from a trip in Nigeria. Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, announced Monday morning that the two travellers entered the country at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and were tested there before arriving in Ottawa.

Of the new cases recorded in Quebec on Monday, 417 (55 per cent) were from people who aren’t vaccinated, 16 were from people who had one dose more than 14 days ago, and 323 (42 per cent) were from people who had their second shot more than seven days ago.

Quebec's public health institute (INSPQ) is reporting 7,846 active cases, an increase of 522 active cases from Sunday.

Provincial data also showed that 22 people were admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours and 12 people were discharged, for an overall increase of 10 hospitalizations. As of Monday, there were 226 people in hospital, including 45 people in intensive care, which is a decrease of three ICU cases from the day before.

Non-vaccinated people are 16.1 times more likely to be hospitalized and 3.6 times more likely to be infected compared to vaccinated people, according to Quebec's Ministry of Health and Social Services. The province says those statistics are based on COVID-19 data from the past four weeks.

Of the 22 people admitted to hospital, nine were unvaccinated and 13 had their second shot more than seven days ago.

The positivity rate in Quebec was 3.3 per cent on Monday. Testing is also up as health-care workers analyzed 23,013 samples on Nov. 27.

VACCINATION COVERAGE

An additional 22,598 vaccine doses were administered in Quebec in the last 24 hours, for a total of 13,594,078 doses given out in the province. There are also 232,450 doses given to Quebecers out of province, which means the total number of doses given to residents is 13,826,528.

In the past 24 hours, health-care workers have administered 19,857 first doses, the vast majority of which (18,927) were for youth between five and 11 years old. So far, 69,889 doses have been given out to Quebec kids under 12 since they became eligible last week.

According to the latest data, 85 per cent of the population aged five and older have received one dose, 81 per cent has received two doses, and 3 per cent has received a booster.