MONTREAL -- Quebec health authorities reported 1,378 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the province since the start of the pandemic to 118,529. Of them, 11,450 are active.
As of Wednesday, Quebec's seven-day rolling average is about 1,230 new COVID-19 cases per day.
The province also reported another 22 deaths related to the disease, including six from the past 24 hours and 16 from between Nov. 4 and Nov. 9, for a total of 6,515.
As usual, Montreal reported the highest number of new cases on Wednesday out of all of Quebec's regions, with 318 (total 45,287). That was followed by Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean with 198 cases (total 2,411), Lanaudiere with 166 (total 8,940), and Monteregie with 144 (total 17,166).
Hospitalizations increased by 39 from Tuesday to Wednesday and there are now 573 people being treated for COVID-19 in Quebec hospitals. Of them, 84 are in the intensive care ward, which is two more than 24 hours earlier.
As of Wednesday, 100,564 are confirmed recovered from COVID-19 in Quebec, which is 843 more than the number reported on Tuesday.
TRANSMISSION RATE IS DOWN
Montreal public health director Mylene Drouin told reporters Wednesday that Quebec's hotspots are trending downwards, with 11 per cent of tests coming back positive in those regions.
"Our health system capacity will not be overloaded," she said.
Quebec reported that it completed analyses of 24,198 COVID-19 samples on Nov. 9 (Quebec reports its daily testing figures from two days prior).
NEW TRACING STRATEGY IN MONTREAL
According to Drouin, 80 per cent of transmissions can be traced back to about 20 per cent of cases. These transmissions are tracable to super spreader events, such as parties and events in close-contact environments.
Public health says it will be emphasizing retroactive tracing of COVID-19 infections in an attempt to identify instances of mass infection.
Upon taking a COVID-19 test, patients will be asked if they attended any events where they may have been exposed to the virus.
If the patient says they have, their test results will be considered higher priority.
