Quebec reported 14 new deaths due to COVID-19 and another slight rise in hospitalizations on Friday.

The Ministry of Health said a total of 16,836 people have died since the pandemic started. There were three new deaths in the last 24 hours, four deaths between two and seven days ago, and another seven reported more than a week ago.

Hospitalizations rose by 19 on Friday after 166 people were admitted and 147 people were discharged in the last 24 hours.

The total now stands at 1,829 hospitalizations, 548 of which are people who were admitted because of COVID-19. The rest were hospitalized for another reason.

The number of people in intensive care inched up slightly by three for a total of 38 ICU admissions.

Meanwhile, the number of health-care workers absent for COVID-related reasons remained unchanged at 3,954 on Friday.

NEW CASES, VACCINATIONS

The health ministry said Friday that 1,016 people tested positive for the coronavirus through PCR testing, which is reserved for priority clientele.

Health-care workers analyzed 11,950 samples on Oct. 5.

The province also logged 248 rapid antigen test results from the public, 221 of which came back positive.

The positivity rate in Quebec was 10.7 per cent on Friday.

Health-care workers administered another 20,964 vaccine shots on Thursday, for a total of 21,391,514 shots given to Quebecers.

Health Canada announced Friday that it approved the Pfizer-BioNTech booster vaccine that targets the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants for people aged 12 and older.