All the staff and residents at Manoir Stanstead received the first dose of vaccine against COVID-19 on Friday.
Similar campaigns are underway at other residences in the region, including Wales Home where vaccines were administered to staff and residents on Sunday.
Sunday’s report brings only eight new cases in the Townships
The Province of Quebec reported 666 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the total number of people infected to 282,122 with 8,278 cases currently active. In announcing the numbers on twitter, Health Minister Christian Dubé pointed out that it marked the best day since Sept. 23 in terms of daily reports.
There were 15 new deaths recorded, for a total of deaths of 10,307: seven being from the previous day while the remaining eight were from past weeks. As of Sunday’s report there were 686 hospitalizations, a decrease of 14, and 119 people in intensive care, a decrease of one.
Also, 13,020 doses of vaccine were administered on Friday, the last day for which data was available, for a total of 344,900 doses out of the 401,685 received to date. This figure accounts for 3.5 per cent of the population of the province.
Although 67 new cases were reported in the Eastern Townships over the weekend, only eight of those were from Sunday, making that report the lowest the region has seen in months. Of the 289 active cases across the region, 184 were in either the Haute Yamaska (87 cases) or Sherbrooke (97 cases). At five each, the Coaticook and Haut-Saint-François health regions showed the lowest number of active cases of any region reporting information (no data were provided for the Asbestos region), and the Val Saint-François had the highest concentration of cases in relation to its population, with 113.8 cases per 100,000 people.
No new deaths were reported in the Townships, and the number of non-ICU hospitalizations decreased to 16, all of whom are at Sherbrooke’s Hôtel-Dieu hospital. The number of intensive care cases in the region remained stable at three, with one at the Fleurimont Hospital and two at the Hôtel-Dieu.
As of Sunday morning, 16,798 doses of vaccine had been administered within the local network, where the focus is currently on vaccinating residents and staff in seniors’ residences.
While case numbers continue to improve compared to how they were during the month of January, the province is tracking confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 variants. As of Sunday’s report there were 23 confirmed cases and another 329 presumptive cases across the province. So far there has only been one instance of the more contagious B.1.1.7 variant discovered in the Eastern Townships.
