MONTREAL -- Quebec administered a record number of vaccine doses in a 24-hour period Wednesday, as the province added 1,248 new positive COVID-19 cases.
VACCINATION CAMPAIGN
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube praised the success of the province's vaccination campaign on Thursday reporting on Twitter that Wednesday was "another record-breaking day," with some 85,000 doses of vaccine administered.
About 30,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses were administered, and Dube said that more than 100,000 people have made appointments to get the AstraZeneca vaccine over the next seven days.
A graph posted on Twitter by the minister shows a steady growth in the number of doses administered daily since the start of the vaccination campaign.
"Quebec now has 11,000 trained vaccinators," Dube said, and "teams are ready to receive more vaccine."
The province reported 84,837 more vaccinations were administered in the past 24 hours and 935 before April 21 bringing the total number of vaccinations to 2,589,682, which is 30.1 per cent of the population.
Several provinces, including Quebec, say their vaccination campaigns are being slowed by Ottawa's inability to provide all the doses they could use.
BY THE NUMBERS: NEW CASES, DEATHS AND HOSPITALIZATIONS
With the new positive COVID-19 cases, a total of 341,645 COVID-19 cases have been reported since the start of the pandemic.
The Quebec Institute of Public Health (INSPQ) is reporting 12,124 active COVID-19 cases, and the seven-day average number of new cases is now 1,300 per day.
Of those, 318,676 people are reported to have recovered from the novel coronavirus, which is 1,338 more than on Wednesday.
The province also added seven more deaths due to the disease, including two in the past 24 hours, and five between April 15 and April 20.
Since the pandemic began, Quebec has reported 10,845 deaths due to COVID-19.
Hospitalizations dropped by five on Thursday and there are now 711 patients receiving treatment for COVID-19 in Quebec hospitals. Of those, 174 people are in intensive care wards, a decrease of four.
On April 20, 46,306 samples were analyzed.
VARIANTS
After Quebec confirmed a first B.1.617 (Indian) variant Wednesday, Quebec has now reported positive cases of all five variants.
The province reported 71 new confirmed variant cases bringing that total to 3,515. Of the confirmed cases, 3,304 are the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant, 169 are the B.1.351 (South African) variant, 16 are the P.1 (Brazilian) variant, and 25 are the B.1.525 (Nigerian) variant.
There are now 25,124 suspected variant cases, which is 764 more than on Wednesday.
REGIONAL DATA
The highest number of new cases was reported in Montreal (307 new, 123,209 total), followed by Chaudiere-Appalaches (171 new, 15,806 total), Quebec City (150 new, 30,178 total), Monteregie (144 new, 47,173 total) and Outaouais (135 new, 10,737 total).
Three deaths were reported in Chaudiere-Appalaches (307 total), and one death was reported in Quebec City (1,057 total), Montreal (4,664 total), Outaouais (187 total) and Monteregie (1,528 total).
-- with files from The Canadian Press.
