MONTREAL -- There have been 17 new deaths due to COVID-19 in Quebec as the province is reporting 1,136 new cases of the virus, according to the latest figures from the last 24 hours.

There have also been eight new hospitalizations for a total of 694, though the number of patients in the ICU dropped by 6 from the previous day. There are a total of 177 people in intensive care.

Of those who tested positive, 315,984 have recovered since the start of the pandemic, an increase of 1,608.

The Quebec Institute of Public Health says that there are 12,363 active COVID-19 cases in the province.

There have been 10,833 deaths due to the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. Among the new deaths that were reported, four were in the last 24 hours, 11 deaths were from April 13 and April 18, and two were from an unknown date.

Health-care professionals in the province analyzed 28,568 samples on April 18.

VACCINATIONS

The province only administered 47,799 doses of the vaccine in the last 24 hours — far below the average in the past week — for a total of 2,448,409.

The province has received a total of 3,042,405 vaccine doses to date and received more in recent days. The province says it has received 205,920 of the 230 490 doses of Pfizer's vaccine and the 18,960 AstraZeneca vaccine doses received last week are in transit to health institutions.

On Monday, public health director Dr. Horacio Arruda said Quebecers under 55 will soon be eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine.

On Tuesday, officials announced the cutoff will now be age 45, and that the change will take effect on the Clic-Santé booking website overnight.

REGIONAL DATA

Montreal saw the highest increase in new cases (224), followed by Quebec City (195), Chaudière-Appalaches (140), and Outaouais (111).

Regions that saw the highest increase in deaths include Quebec City (3 new, 1,056 total), Montreal (4 new, 4,655), Laval (2 new, 897 total) and Lanaudière (2 new, 506 total).

VARIANTS

There has been no rise in the number of confirmed variants of COVID-19, which stand at 2,744. There are more than 23,000 presumptive cases that are being sequenced and the majority of the variant cases are in the Capitale-Nationale region.

The B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the U.K., accounts for 93 per cent of the variant cases in Quebec.