MONTREAL -- Quebec saw another significant drop in new COVID-19 cases on Monday, recording just 1,092 new infections.
For most of the last week and a half, the daily count has hovered around 1,500 cases.
Sunday saw a decrease with just 1,344 new infections, the lowest in a week and a half. There was also a drop in hospitalizations for the first time in days.
Monday's numbers continued that trend, and the seven-day average now stands at 1,437 cases per day.
There was also a significant drop in active cases, 597 fewer, according to Quebec's public health institute. There are now 12,852 active cases in total across Quebec.
Other numbers weren't quite as encouraging, however. Fifteen new deaths have been reported, including two in the last 24 hours, 11 between April 12 and April 17, and two at an unknown date.
One death has also been removed from the province's total count when it was found to be not attributable to COVID-19.
Hospitalizations also increased slightly, by three, to a total of 686 people. There are eight more in intensive care, for a total of 183.
In the last day reported for testing, Saturday, 33,753 tests were done, the province reported. The positivity rate on Saturday was 3.5 per cent, down from the recent high of 5 per cent on April 6.
VACCINATIONS
On Sunday, Quebec administered 40,433 doses of vaccine, significantly down from the record highs of over 70,000 per day from last week.
That brings the total doses administered to 2,399,934, out of a total number of 2,836,485 doses shipped to Quebec so far.
The province noted in its daily statistics announcement that it's expecting 230,490 doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week, and that 18,960 doses of AstraZeneca are still "in transit" in the health-care system.
REGIONAL DATA
The public health institute is now publishing how many active cases there are by region. In that count, the hardest-hit region is Chaudiere-Appalaches, which currently has about 3.6 actively infected people per 1,000 residents.
It's followed by Quebec City at 3.3 active cases per 1,000 people and the Outaouais at 2.6 per 1,000. Those are the province's three known hot spots right now. Montreal stands at about 1.6 active cases per 1,000 people.
However, Montreal is back to outstripping Quebec City in its daily total number of new infections -- not the rate per capita. It reported 287 new cases on Sunday, the province's highest, followed by Quebec City at 166 new cases, Montérégie at 125, Chaudière-Appalaches at 115, and Outaouais at 109.
Of the deaths, three took place in Quebec City (1,053 total), two in Montreal (4,655 total), and two in Monteregie (1,527 total). The locations of the rest are still unclear.
