Quebec COVID-19 deaths rise by 52 as hospitalizations approach 3,000
Quebec recorded another sharp increase in deaths Wednesday as 457 people entered care with COVID-19, bringing the total to 2,877 people in hospital with the virus.
The province could surpass 3,000 hospitalizations as early as Thursday if current trends continue. That would be in line with projections released last week by Quebec's health institute (INESSS), which suggested an explosion of hospitalizations due to the highly contagious Omicron variant.
For now, ICU occupancy remains lower than the institute's prediction of 400. Wednesday's ICU cases stood at 263, an overall increase of eight.
Since the previous day, 41 people entered critical care, and 33 were discharged.
Deaths increased by 52, bringing that total to 12,028.
The province also reported 8,351 new cases, though the actual number of new infections is likely much higher since Quebec restricted testing to certain groups.
What may be more encouraging is the apparent drop in the positivity rate compared to earlier days of the Omicron wave.
On Wednesday, an analysis of 38,331 tests found a positivity rate of 16.6 per cent, meaning that 16.6 per cent of all tests done on that day came back positive.
For comparison, the positivity rate stood at 31.2 per cent on Jan. 6 based on 56,147 tests.
However, both rates are well above five per cent, which, in past waves of the pandemic, authorities considered an alarm threshold.
THIRD DOSES APPROACH 30 PER CENT
Of the eligible population (aged five and up), 89 people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, 82 per cent have two, and 27 per cent have three.
Booster eligibility is opening to anyone over 35 on Wednesday. And vaccination rates are expected to rise in the coming days following a controversial move from the provincial government suggesting it will tax unvaccinated people.
On Tuesday, more than 7,000 people signed up for their first shot, the "highest [increase] in recent days," according to Health Minister Christian Dube, who called the increase "encouraging" in a Wednesday social media post.
Registration for a booster dose will open soon to the following groups:
- 25 and up: Thursday, Jan. 13
- 18 and up: Friday, Jan. 14
Health-care workers administered 111,033 more COVID-19 doses, bringing that total to 16,220,710.
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