Quebec adds 643 new COVID-19 cases and six more deaths
Quebec added 643 new coronavirus cases Friday, with six more people reported dead due to the virus.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 410,823 Quebecers have caught the virus. Of those, 393,595 people have recovered, and 11,377 have died.
Public health is monitoring 5,851 active infections, reporting 617 active outbreaks Friday.
There was an overall decrease in hospitalizations since Thursday's update after 35 people arrived in hospital with COVID-19 symptoms. A total of 36 people are no longer receiving care, for a net decrease of one.
Of those in hospital, 84 are in the ICU, where there were six new entries and 13 fewer people receiving that kind of care on Friday.
Friday's update was based on the results of 35,217 analyzed COVID-19 tests, for a positivity rate of 2 per cent.
VACCINATION CAMPAIGN
About 84 per cent of Quebecers aged 12 and up are now fully vaccinated, and 89 per cent have received at least one dose.
Health-care workers administered 17,225 vaccine doses in the 24 hours prior to Friday's update. In total, 13,099,811 doses have been delivered to Quebecers.
Most of the people reported to be infected Friday were unvaccinated, or had received their first dose less than two weeks prior, representing 66 per cent of new cases. That group accounted for 429 of the 643 newly reported cases.
Unvaccinated people are about 31 times more likely to be hospitalized after catching COVID-19, according to public health.
DELTA CASES CONTINUE TO RISE
Quebec added 131 new cases confirmed or suspected to be linked to the Delta variant Friday.
The total Delta count in Quebec is officially 22,629. However, the actual number is likely higher than that due to delays in sequencing.
Public health estimated that from Sept. 12 to 18, 86.9 per cent of recorded infections were Delta variant cases.
COVID-19 IN SCHOOLS
Public health is monitoring hundreds of active cases among students and staff in Quebec schools.
As of the most recent update on Sept. 29, 1,705 students and 167 staff members were suffering from active COVID-19 infections.
Those numbers include those in the public and private systems, as well as students studying from home.
The Government of Quebec publishes a full list of schools reporting active infections on its website.
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