MONTREAL -- Quebec health authorities reported 2,108 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, which is the third day in a row the province has reported more than 2,000 cases of the disease in a 24-hour period.
The updated numbers bring Quebec's cumulative case count to 179,093 since the start of the pandemic. Of them, 18,458 are active.
Quebec's seven-day average currently stands at about 1,936 new cases per day.
The province also reported another 30 deaths linked to the disease on Monday. Two of them took place in the past 24 hours, 27 are from between Dec. 14 and 19 and one is from before Dec. 14.
Since the start of the pandemic, 7,766 Quebec residents have died from COVID-19.
Hospitalizations in the province jumped by 38 from Sunday to Monday and there are now 1,048 people receiving treatment for COVID-19 in facilities across Quebec. The number of patients in the intensive care unit remained stable, at 146, from Sunday to Monday.
For the second day in a row, the City of Montreal reported more than 700 cases of COVID-19 in a 24-hour period. The city set a record on Sunday when it recorded 786 new cases of the disease, the highest number since the pandemic began.
Monday's updated numbers added 708 cases to Montreal's total (62,828), 302 to Laval's total (14,565), and 262 to Monteregie's (24,984).
Quebec City reported another 161 cases on Monday (total 15,683), Lanaudiere reported 158 (total 13,791), and the Laurentians, 115 (total 9,576).
As of Monday, 4,831 Quebec residents have received the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine against COVID-19 as the province reported another 115 doses were administered on Sunday.
Most of the vaccines were administered in Quebec City (3,070) while the rest were given out in Montreal (1,761).
Residents in long-term care homes and health-care workers are set to begin receiving the vaccine on Monday at 21 sites that have been set up across Quebec.
Another 1,825 people were confirmed recovered from COVID-19 on Monday, for a total of 152,869.
Quebec reported that it completed analyses of 26,426 COVID-19 samples on Dec. 19 (Quebec reports its daily testing figures from two days prior).