Quebec adds 89 new COVID-19 deaths; hospitalizations rise to 3,417
Quebec is reporting 89 new COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday along with a net increase of 36 new hospitalizations.
The total number of people who have died due to the novel coronavirus in Quebec is now 12,453.
There are now 3,417 people in hospital with COVID-19 after 336 people were admitted in the last 24 hours and 300 people were discharged.
Quebec health officials are expected to provide an update on the COVID-19 situation at a news conference at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
ICU cases rose slightly with three more people in intensive care, for a total of 289.
Non-vaccinated people continue to be overrepresented in the ICU numbers. They only make up about 10 per cent of the population in Quebec, but they accounted for about 42 per cent of the people over four years old who ended up in the ICU in the past 28 days, according to provincial data.
The ministry of health says unvaccinated people are 5.8 times more likely to be hospitalized and 12.4 times more likely to be sent to the ICU.
On Tuesday, the province reported 5,143 new COVID-19 cases. However, that number is an underestimation since PCR testing in Quebec is reserved for priority clients, such as health-care workers, first responders, people who are homeless, among others. Results from rapid testing are also not included in provincial data.
There have a total of 806,296 cases since March 2020 and 742,354 people have recovered.
The number of active cases in the province dipped to 51,489, a drop from 54,139 on Monday. The positivity rate in Quebec is down to 14 per cent and the number of active outbreaks inched up slightly to 1,645, up from 1,623 from the day before.
Health-care workers analyzed 29,042 samples on Jan. 16.
VACCINATION COVERAGE
The province administered 93,730 more doses into people’s arms in the last 24 hours for a total of 16,576,407 doses. Another 261,736 doses have been administered to Quebecers out of province.
First and second doses were up by 2,210 and 1,907, respectively, on Tuesday, while health-care workers administered 84,176 booster shots in the last 24 hours. Vaccination coverage for first doses is at 90 per cent in Quebec with 7,331,433 doses, 82 per cent for two doses with 6,707,796 doses, and 34 per cent for third doses with 2,735,296 doses. People aged five and older are eligible to receive a vaccine.
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