Variant cases continue to rise as Quebec moves into March Break

As the March Break gets under way in the province, Quebec’s provincial police are reminding the public that they will be increasing patrols at tourist attractions and locations that provide vacation rentals as mandated by the provincial government. The heightened surveillance is aimed at discouraging illegal gathering and the mixing of family bubbles either on rental properties or in private homes.
The Province of Quebec reported 737 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday following reports of 815 on Friday and 858 on Saturday, bringing the total number of people infected to 287,740. Of that total, 269,530 people had recovered and 7,817 were considered active cases.
Sunday brought word of nine new deaths, alongside 10 reported over Friday and Saturday, but the total number of deaths only increased to 10,393 due to the withdrawal of 1 death not attributable to COVID-19.
Hospitalizations in Quebec increased by two to 601 on Sunday, but that total decreased by 32 overall, compared to last week. The situation with intensive care numbers was similar, with an increase of five reported Sunday, but an overall decrease of five compared to the last report that appeared in The Record, for a total of 117 people .
Sunday’s report also indicated that 12,469 doses of vaccine were administered on Saturday, for a total of 432,255 out of the 537,825 doses of vaccine that have been received to date. This accounts for 4.4 per cent of the total population of the province.
In the Eastern Townships 26 new cases were reported on Sunday after 21 on Saturday and 32 on Friday, with several areas within the region reporting no new cases over two or three of the days.
There were no new deaths attributed to the virus in the region on Sunday, and local hospitalizations decreased by two to 18. The number of people in intensive care remained stable at two.
So far, 21,166 doses of vaccine have been administered in the Townships.
Over the weekend the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 variants in the province increased to 137, with 1,083 presumptive cases. As of the most recent update only one of the confirmed cases was in the Estrie administrative region.

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