MONTREAL -- Montreal reported the highest number of COVID-19 vacccine doses administered in a single day when the province reported Saturday that 41,338 more people received a dose bringing the vaccination rate to 10.8 per cent of the population.

Since the campaign began, 915,653 vaccinations have been administered in Quebec.

The province also reported that 775 more people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours bringing the total number of infections to 301,691.

Of those, 284,203 people are reported to have recovered from the disease, an increase of 725. 

In addition, the province added seven new deaths due to COVID-19 to the overall total including one in the past 24 hours, four between March 13 and March 18, and two before March 13.

Since the pandemic began, Quebec has reported 10,594 deaths due to the disease.

Hospitalizations increased by one, and there are now 505 people receiving care in Quebec hospitals for COVID-19. The number of people in intensive care wards remained the same as on Friday at 99.

On March 18, health-care professionals analyzed 32,964 samples. (Quebec releases its sampling data from two days prior to its daily updates).

REGIONAL DATA

The highest number of increase in cases was reported in Montreal (297 new, 112,443 total), followed by Laval (95 new, 26,272 total), and Monteregie (78 new, 43,205 total).

Quebec City (51 new, 23,139 total) and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (53 new, 9,108 total) also reported high case increases.