MONTREAL -- The province reported Sunday that the number of COVID-19 patients in Quebec hospitals dropped below 600 for the first time since the fall.
Quebec said nine fewer people are receiving treatment in the province's hospitals for an overall total of 592 hospitalizations. Of those, 107 people are in intensive care wards, a decrease of two.
It is the lowest number of hospitalizations since Nov. 15 when the province reported 591 COVID-19 patients in care including 87 in ICUs.
The last time ICU numbers were this low was Dec. 4 when the province reported 96.
Quebec reported that 707 more people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus bringing that total to 292,631.
Of those, 275,059 are reported to have recovered from the disease, an increase of 814.
The seven-day average for daily case increases is now 699, and the Quebec Institute of Public Health says there are now 7,100 active COVID-19 cases, a decrease of 114.
It is the lowest number of active cases in the province since Sept. 29 when the province reported 6,801 active cases.
The province also recorded seven more deaths due to the disease including two in the past 24 hours, four between Feb. 28 and March 5, and one before Feb. 28.
Quebec's vaccination campaign continued with health-care workers administering 15,329 more doses of vaccine bringing the total number of vaccinations to 548,136.
On March 5, 24,413 samples were analyzed. (Quebec releases its testing data from two days prior to its daily updates).
REGIONAL DATA
Just four regions in Quebec reported more COVID-19 cases Sunday than they did on Saturday, and the highest increase in cases was reported in Montreal (329 new, 108,417 total) followed by Monteregie (89 new, 42,288 total) and Laval (85 new, 25,255 total).
