Quebec reports slight increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations, 20 new deaths

Should Quebec lift COVID-19 restrictions? Dr. Christopher Labos discusses whether or not Quebec should follow in the footsteps of countries and lift all COVID-19 restrictions.

After reporting back-to-back drops in COVID-19 hospitalizations in recent weeks, Quebec said Monday that the total number of people in hospital rose slightly by 14 in the last 24 hours.

This brings hospitalizations to 2,425 in Quebec. The number of people in intensive care increased by one, for a total of 178 ICU patients.

Based on the last four weeks of data, the province said non-vaccinated people are 5.8 times more likely to be hospitalized and nearly 10 times more likely to be sent to the ICU compared to people who are vaccinated.

The health ministry also recorded another 20 deaths, for a total of 13,495 deaths.

Active cases of COVID-19 now stand at 35,064, a drop of 3,674 cases from the day before. The positivity rate in Quebec is now 10.4 per cent and there are currently 1,360 active outbreaks across the province.

The province also recorded 2,240 new COVID-19 cases on Monday. PCR testing is still not available to the general public. Out of the 1,091 rapid antigen tests results uploaded to the government’s website, 813 were positive.

Health-care workers analyzed 19,499 tests on Feb. 5.

As the relaxing of the lockdown continues in Quebec, as of Monday some public health restrictions will be lifted for cinemas, concert halls and places of worship. More restrictions are also loosening next week.

VACCINATION UPDATE

Health-care workers administered another 22,265 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, for a total of 17,992,280 doses given out in Quebec. An additional 287,032 doses were given to Quebecers outside of the province.

The majority of the new doses administered (13,023 doses) were booster shots.

As of Monday, health-care workers have administered: 7,391,089 first doses covering 91 per cent of the eligible population, 6,939,293 second doses covering 85 per cent of the population, and 3,869,850 booster shots covering 47 per cent of the population.