MONTREAL -- Quebec reported Thursday that 1,368 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 258,698 since the start of the pandemic.
The number is below the seven-day average which is now 1,405.
Of the total number of positive cases, Quebec reports that 233,768 people have recovered from the disease, 1,547 more than on Wednesday.
The Quebec Institute of Public Health reports that there are 15,263 active COVID-19 cases in the province.
The province also added 39 deaths due to the disease including eight that were reported in the past 24 hours, 24 between Jan. 21 and Jan. 26, five before Jan. 21 and two at an unknown date.
The province also removed two deaths from the total after an investigation found that they were not attributable to COVID-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, 9,667 people have died due to the novel coronavirus, provincial public health officials said.
The number of people receiving treatment in hospital dropped by 26 Thursday for a total of 1,264 hospitalizations. Of those, 212 people are in the intensive care ward, a decrease of nine.
Hospitalization numbers have dropped in seven of the past eight days.
On Wednesday, 3,767 doses of vaccine were administered bringing the total number of vaccinations to 232,986.
Health-care professionals analyzed 36,733 samples Jan. 26. (Quebec releases its testing data from two days prior to its daily updates).
REGIONAL DATA
Of the new cases reported, the Island of Montreal reported the highest increase (546 new, 92,910 total) followed by Monteregie (230 new, 37,343 total), the Laurentians (133 new, 14,328 total), and Laval (110 new, 21,793 total).
Of the new deaths the province reported, 13 were reported in Monteregie (1,312 total), 11 in Montreal (4,285 total); six in Chaudiere-Appalaches (254 total); two in Quebec City (908 total), and Mauricie-et-Centre-du-Quebec (443 total).
One death was reported in the Eastern Townships (267 total), Outaouais (152 total), and Lanaudiere (460 total).
