MONTREAL -- On the final day of 2020, Quebec confirmed COVID-19 cases shot past 200,000, as the province reported a record single-day increase of 2,819 people testing positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.

With the new cases, Quebec has reported 202,641 positive novel coronavirus tests since the start of the pandemic in March. 

In addition, 62 more people are reported to have died due to the disease including 22 deaths in the past 24 hours, 29 deaths between Dec. 24 and Dec. 29, seven deaths before Dec. 24, and four deaths that occurred at an unknown date. One death was removed from the total number as it was found to be not attributable to COVID-19.

In total, Quebec has reported 8,226 deaths due to COVID-19 in 2020.

The Quebec Institute of Public Health is reporting that 2,002 more people have recovered from the disease bringing that total to 172,047.

The institute reports that there are 22,367 active cases in the province.

The year ends with a positive note for Quebec's health-care workers, as the province reported that there are 36 fewer people receiving treatment in Quebec hospitals for COVID-19 bringing that total down to 1,175. Of those, 165 people are in the intensive care ward, an increase of 13.

On Wednesday, health-care professionals administered 3,942 vaccinations. A total of 29,250 vaccines have been administered thus far. The highest number of vaccines have been administered in Montreal (6,857), Quebec City (5,599) and Monteregie (4,718).

On Dec. 29, 36,620 samples were analyzed bringing the total number of tests administered in the province to 4,882,251.

Quebec will not release its daily COVID-19 updates on Jan. 1 or Jan. 2, and will only provide overall numbers of cases, deaths and hospitalizations on Jan. 3. 

REGIONAL BREAKDOWN

Montreal came close to recording 1,000 new cases for the fourth time in five days when the island reported 936 new cases (71,338 total).

Eleven of the 18 regions in Quebec reported larger increases Thursday than they did Wednesday. 

Monteregie with 471 new (28,542 total) reported the second highest increase followed by Quebec City (257 new, 17,797 total), Laval (243 new, 16,681 total), the Laurentians (163 new, 10,942 total),  Mauricie-et-Centre-du-Quebec (155 new, 9,855 total), Lanaudiere (148 new, 15,123 total), the Eastern Townships (146 new, 7,879 total), and Chaudiere-Appalaches (134 new, 8,249 total).