MONTREAL -- As Quebec holds a ceremony commemorating victims of COVID-19 a year after the health crisis was declared a pandemic, Quebec announced Thursday that health-care professionals have administered over 600,000 doses of vaccine.
The province said 18,659 more vaccinations have been administered bringing the total number of doses administered in the province to 619,060, which is 7.3 per cent of the population.
Quebec has received 852,065 doses of vaccine.
Quebec also reported that 738 more people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the province to 295,390 since the start of the pandemic.
Of those, 277,738 are reported to have recovered from the disease, 553 more than on Wednesday.
The Quebec Institute of Public Health is reporting 170 more active cases Thursday for a total of 7,134.
The seven-day average for daily case increases is now 716.
Quebec also added 15 new deaths including three in the past 24 hours, nine between March 4 and March 9, two before March 4 and one at an unknown date.
Since the pandemic began, 10,518 people in Quebec have died due to the disease.
After hospitalizations increased Wednesday, the province reported that 18 fewer patients are receiving care in Quebec hospitals for COVID-19 for a total of 563 hospitalizations. Of those, 111 people are in intensive care wards, a decrease of one.
On March 9, a total of 31,347 samples were analyzed. (Quebec releases its testing data from two days prior to its daily updates).
REGIONAL DATA
Five of the newly reported deaths were in Montreal (4,558 total), three in Outaouais (167 total), and two deaths were reported in Quebec City (997 total), and Laval (876 total).
One death was reported in the Eastern Townships (311 total), Lanaudiere (495 total) and Monteregie (1,492 total).
Montreal reported the highest increase in cases in Quebec with 341 new (109,693 total), followed by Laval (96 new, 25,600 total), Monteregie (76 new, 42,551 total) and the Laurentians (70 new, 16,961 total).
