MONTREAL -- One of Montreal's downtown hospitals avoided any COVID-19 outbreaks during the pandemic's first wave, but now it has a few patients infected, while also handling occupancy well over capacity.
The CHUM hospital has fewer than five patients, said spokesperson Lucie Dufrersne, but that's more than it's had since March.
The patients were all on the 18th floor of the hospital, she said.
The CHUM is also significantly overcapacity right now, according to statistics published by the Health Index website.
The hospital was listed Friday as at 124 per cent of its intended capacity, well over Montreal's average of 107 per cent.
Because of the overflow, there are 28 patients at the CHUM who have been on stretchers for 24 hours, and nine who have been on stretchers for 48 hours.
The number of Quebecers hospitalized from COVID-19 continued to rise this week, after hitting a milestone last week that Health Minister Christian Dube called worrying -- the province reached 700 people in hospital.
Friday, that number hit 871, with over 50 more deaths reported in the daily update, most of which took place over the last week.
