MONTREAL -- Quebec reported its lowest daily increase of COVID-19 infections since late October on Monday, with just 853 new cases, as non-essential businesses reopen for the first time in weeks.
There are now 11,504 known active coronavirus cases in Quebec.
Recoveries outnumbered new cases, with 1,249 people reportedly virus-free on Monday. Since March, 270,911 have caught the virus in Quebec, of whom 249,361 have recovered.
The province also added 17 deaths, bringing the total to 10,046, which included the withdrawal of two deaths that were found not to be attributable to COVID-19.
Of those 17 deaths, two occurred in the last 24 hours, 11 between Feb. 1 to 6 and four happened before February 1.
The number of hospitalized people increased by six compared to the previous day, for a total of 969. Among those, two people entered intensive care, for a total of 160.
VACCINES
The province administered 1,529 doses of the vaccine on Sunday, for a total of 259,188.
To date, Quebec has received 294,825 doses.
TESTING
On Feb. 6, Quebec conducted 22,502 coronavirus tests, which returned 1,081 positive results.
This represents a positivity rate of 4.8 per cent.
REGIONAL BREAKDOWN
Montreal was once again the most affected region, reporting 393 new cases of the virus, the lowest daily increase since the end of January. Since March, the city has reported 98,388 total infections.
After Montreal, Monteregie was the second most affected (156 new, 39,480 total), then Laval (83 new, 22,969 total), the Laurentians (60 new, 15,132 total) and Lanaudiere (44 new, 19,123 total).
