MONTREAL -- Quebec public health authorities announced Saturday that 156 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
It is the highest number of new cases since July 30 when officials reported 158 new cases.
There were no new deaths reported in the same time frame, but authorities said two people died before Aug. 22, while three more died on an unknown date due to the disease.
The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 is now 5,755.
The total number of posititive cases in Quebec since the start of the pandemic is now 62,232. Health authorities reported that contaminated samples detected Aug. 26 reduced the number of confirmed cases by 78. Those cases have now all been removed from the provincial total.
The Montreal region continues to be the most affected by the novel coronavirus.There have now been 29,769 positive cases reported on the island of Montreal since the start of the pandemic, an increase of 25 compared to the previous day. There were 9,289 (+16) cases in Monteregie and 6,284 (+10) in Laval.
Quebec City's numbers were also up by double figures (2041, +10), as were those in Lanaudiere (4831, +14) and in the Laurentians (4216, +16).
The number of hospitalizations in the province remained the same Saturday with 117 patients receiving treatment in Quebec's health-care centres. Of those, 17 people are in the intensive care ward, the same number as Friday.
On Aug. 27, health-care professionals analyzed 16,912 samples, which is 1,201 more than were analyzed Aug. 26. (Quebec releases its testing data from two days prior to the daily updates).
