Quebec is reporting 85 new deaths related to COVID-19 on Tuesday as hospitalizations dropped again, with 21 fewer patients receiving care than 24 hours ago.

The total number of deaths in Quebec is now 12,936.

Hospitalizations reached a total of 3,278 after 272 people were admitted and 293 people were discharged since Monday.

Meanwhile, the number of people in intensive care remained the same on Tuesday with 263 patients in the ICU. 

At a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Quebec Premier François Legault announced some public health measures will be lifted as of Monday, such as the reopening of indoor dining in restaurants at half-capacity.

The province says unvaccinated people are 5.7 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and 11.6 times more likely to be sent to the ICU than vaccinated people based on the last four weeks of data. 

Active cases in the province also dropped by 1,647 in the past day, for a total 45,436 cases. 

The latest update from Quebec shows there were 2,977 new COVID-19 cases reported on Tuesday, however, that number is not a true reflection of the daily cases since PCR testing is not open to the general public in Quebec. Results from rapid antigen tests are also not included in provincial data.

Health-care workers analyzed 22,818 samples on Jan. 23. 

Since the start of the pandemic, Quebec has reported 841,414 cases of the coronavirus, while 783,042 people have recovered.

VACCINATION CAMPAIGN

The province administered 86,488 new vaccine doses into people’s arms in the last 24 hours, for a total of 17,251,891 doses given in Quebec. An additional 269,266 doses were given to Quebecers outside of the province.

The vast majority of the shots given out in the last 24 hours (70,422 doses) were booster shots.

To date, health-care workers have administered 7,356,226 first doses (covering 90 per cent of the eligible population), 6,781,785 second doses (covering 83 per cent of the eligible population), and 3,313,198 third doses (covering 41 per cent of the eligible population).