By Gordon Lambie
There were 561 new cases of COVID-19 recorded in the Eastern Townships over the weekend, bringing the average number of new cases per day in the region to 169 over the last week. As of Monday’s report the total number of active cases in the region was 1,572, with 70 active outbreaks being tracked across the territory.
The number of people hospitalised in the Townships increased by eight to 32, eight of whom were in intensive care. This accounted for 40 per cent of all Covid hospitalizations in the province outside of the greater Montreal area.
Asked about the threat of a rising number of Omicron cases in Ontario on Monday afternoon, Premier François Legault said that there has not yet been a change to the recommendations from the provincial public health department, although he was due to meet with Public Health Director Dr. Horatio Arruda on Monday night.
Health Minister Christian Dubé is due to give an update on the vaccination campaign and Covid situation in the province on Tuesday afternoon.
The Province of Quebec reported 1,628 new cases on Monday, bringing the total number of people infected to 467,609 with 14,251 active cases.
There were 1,081 outbreaks being tracked across the province on Monday, and the number of hospitalizations increased by six compared to Sunday, reaching 268 with 73 in intensive care.
The province also recorded three new deaths, for a total of 11,611 since the start of the pandemic.
As of Monday, 272,246 young people aged 5 to 11 had received a first dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 and 52,256 were awaiting their appointment. That amounts to 42 per cent coverage in that age group across the province, and 42.9 per cent in the Eastern Townships.
