Quebec reports 720 COVID-19 cases as hospitalizations rise

Montreal -

Quebec added 720 new COVID-19 cases Thursday as the province logs an increase in overall hospitalizations.

There are now 205 people in hospital with coronavirus symptoms after 20 people arrived and 10 stopped receiving care since Wednesday morning.

Of that total, 46 are in the ICU, an overall decrease of one.

Two more people have been reported dead, bringing that total to 11,550. 

Since the pandemic began in Quebec, 436,804 people have caught COVID-19, of which 419,156 have since recovered.

Public health is monitoring 6,098 active infections within the province.

Thursday's update was based on 30,147 analyzed tests, for a positivity rate of 2.1 per cent.

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VACCINATION CAMPAIGN

Of the eligible population (aged 12 and up), 91 per cent of Quebecers have received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 87 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Health-care workers administered 11,094 shots since Wednesday morning, for a total of 13,666,199 doses given to Quebecers in and outside the province.

Most of Thursday's cases were recorded among people who had either received their first shot less than two-weeks prior, or never got a shot at all. 

That group accounted for 432 of the 720 newly-reported cases, and 13 of 20 new hospitalizations.

Public health says unvaccinated people are 4.2 times more likely to catch COVID-19, and 15.9 times more likely to be hospitalized than vaccinated people.