MONTREAL -- Quebec reported the lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in 11 days when the province added 1,344 more positive cases Sunday.

Hospitalizations also dropped for the first time in over a week when the province said there are nine fewer patients receiving care for the novel coronavirus in Quebec hospitals.

There are now 683 hospitalizations in Quebec, including 175 people in intensive care wards, which is the same number as on Saturday.

Since the pandemic began, Quebec has reported 336,952 positive COVID-19 cases including 312,701 recoveries, 1,654 more than 24 hours ago.

The number of active cases the Quebec Institute of Public Health is reporting dropped for a second straight day when the INSPQ said there are 13,449 active cases in the province, 319 fewer than on Saturday.

Quebec added nine more deaths due to the disease, including two in the past 24 hours, and seven between April 11 and April 16.

Since the pandemic began, 10,802 people have died due to COVID-19 in Quebec, the province says. 

On April 16, 35,308 samples were analyzed. (Quebec releases its testing data from two days prior to its daily updates).

VACCINATION DATA

After two days where the province reported over 70,000 vaccinations per day, Quebec reported 58,945 more people have received a COVID-19 vaccine dose. 

The total number of vaccinations administered in the province is now 2,358,757, which is 27.5 per cent of the population.

Trucks with loudspeakers are driving through Montreal's West Island this weekend to encourage people to get vaccinated.

VARIANTS

The number of suspected COVID-19 variants increased by 1,022 on Sunday, and there are now 21,991 suspected variant cases, and 2,744 confirmed cases.

Those numbers represent 76.9 per cent of the positive cases in the past seven days, the INSPQ says.

Of the confirmed cases, 2,554 are the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant, 163 are the B.1.351 (South African) variant, eight are the P.1 (Brazilian) variant and 19 are the B.1.525 (Nigerian) variant. 

REGIONAL DATA

Three of the newly reported deaths were in the Eastern Townships (329 total) and Monteregie (1,525 total), two in Montreal (4,653 total), and one death was reported in Quebec City (1,050 total).

Montreal reported the highest number of new cases with 336 new (122,145 total), followed by Quebec City (184 new, 29,472 total), Monteregie (161 new, 46,646 total), Outaouais (143 new, 10,281 total) and Chaudiere-Appalaches (139 new, 15,211 total).