Quebec reported 2,588 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 45 deaths in the province on Friday,

Of those deaths, 14 occurred in the last 24 hours, 27 between Jan. 1-6, three before Jan. 1, and one happened at an unknown date.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 8,606 have died. One previously reported death was removed from that total following an investigation revealing it was not attributable to COVID-19. 

As of Friday morning, there were 24,553 active cases of COVID-19 in Quebec.

An additional 23 people have been hospitalized, for a total of 1,403. Of those, five people have entered intensive care, for a total of 207.

A total of 13,971 doses of vaccine were administered on Thursday, for a total of 62,602.

REGIONAL BREAKDOWN

Montreal was the hardest hit region by the virus, reporting 837 new cases for a total of 78,534 since March. The second most affected region was Montérégie (469 new, 31,644 total), then Laval (237 new, 18,609 total), and Estrie (155 new, 8,941 total).

On Jan. 6, the province conducted 43,784 tests, for a total of 5,121,911. Quebec reports it’s testing figures two days after the tests are completed.

Quebec has conducted just 30,162 tests per 100,000 people since the beginning of the pandemic. By contrast, Ontario has nearly doubled that, leading the country with a rate of 55,083 per 100,000.