There were 1,995 people in hospital with COVID-19 across Quebec on Wednesday, a decrease of 57 compared to the previous day. This marks the first time that there have been fewer than 2,000 since early January. According to Santé Quebec, 841 of those people were admitted to hospital for COVID, while the remainder are covid positive and therefore require adapted care, but are in hospital for other reasons.
There were 129 people in the province’s intensive care wards with the virus, down three from Tuesday. 105, or 81 per cent of those people, were in the ICU specifically because of their Covid infection.
The province recorded 24 new deaths linked to the virus on Wednesday, for a total of 13,790 since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020.
In the Eastern Townships there were 90 people in hospital with Covid, down five from Tuesday, with only four in intensive care. The region also recorded no new Covid-related deaths.
In terms of vaccination, the province continues to report thousands of new doses administered per day but coverage levels for first and third doses have plateaued compared to earlier in the campaign. As of Wednesday, first dose coverage across the province was at 91 per cent overall, with the rate among five to 11-year-olds sitting at 64 per cent, second dose coverage was at 86 per cent overall, with the rate for 5–11-year-olds at 37 per cent, and third dose coverage was at 49 per cent overall. Speaking to media on Tuesday, Provincial Public Health Director Dr. Luc Boileau said that the progress of the booster campaign has been stalled by the large number of people who caught the virus over the last two months and therefore have to wait to get an additional shot.
