MONTREAL -- As Premier Francois Legault gets set to announce new restrictions in Quebec, the province's COVID-19 hospitalization numbers spiked Tuesday, shooting past 900 provincewide.
Quebec reported that 69 more people are being treated in hospital since Monday for the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number to 959.
Of these, 125 people are in the intensive care ward, which is three more than 24 hours ago.
The province added 1,741 new positive COVID-19 cases to its tally Tuesday. The total number of Quebecers who have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic is now 167,276.
The seven-day average for new infections is now 1,791 per day.
Of those, 142,894 people have recovered from the disease, 1,549 more than on Monday.
The Quebec Institute of Public Health reported that there are 16,811 active cases in the province.
Quebec also reported 39 new deaths. Seven people are reported to have died in the past 24 hours, 30 between Dec. 8 and Dec. 13 and two at an unknown date.
The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the province is now 7,571.
There were 24,200 tests done Dec. 13 (testing numbers are reported two days later).
And, in a brand-new statistic, 298 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered yesterday, the first day of Quebec's vaccination campaign.
REGIONAL DATA
The highest increase in the number of cases in Quebec were in Montreal with 540 new cases (58,913 total), Monteregie with 285 new cases (23,323 total), Laval with 208 new cases (13,575 total), Quebec City with 155 new cases (14,560 total) and Lanaudiere with 125 new cases (13,054 total).
Montreal accounted for the vast majority of the new deaths with the island reporting 17 out of the total 39. That brings Montreal to a total of 3,725 deaths.
