Quebec public health officials are reporting 2,508 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, and added 62 deaths to the total.
Among those new deaths, 17 occurred in the last 24 hours, 41 took place between Dec. 29 and Jan. 3, another three occurred before Dec. 29 and one occurred on an unknown date. That brings the total since the start of the pandemic to 8,441.
The total number of people infected since the start of the pandemic is now 215,358, of which 181,205 have recovered.
There are now 24,313 active cases in the province.
The number of hospitalizations increased by 23 compared to the previous day, for a cumulative total of 1,317. Among these, the number of people in intensive care increased by six, for a total of 194.
On Monday, 2,529 doses of vaccine were administered, for a total of 32,763.
Health workers administered 20,716 tests on Jan. 3 for a total of 5,011,800 since the start of the pandemic.
REGIONAL BREAKDOWN
Montreal recorded 790 new cases (75 980 total). Monteregie logged 440 new cases (30 357 total), the second highest increase followed by Laval (229 new, 17 834 total), then Quebec City (201, 18,775), and Chaudière-Appalaches (178, 8,861).
POSSIBLE LOCKDOWN EXTENSION LOOMS
Quebec government sources have told La Presse that Premier Francois Legault will announce an extended lockdown with stricter measures at a news conference scheduled for Wednesday at 5 p.m. Those measures could call for schools and non-essential businesses to close, and may also come with a curfew.
