MONTREAL -- Quebec became the second province in Canada after Ontario to record more than 300,000 positive COVID-19 cases.
The province reported Thursday that 702 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 bringing that total to 300,152 since the start of the pandemic.
Of those, 282,693 are reported to have recovered, which is 646 more than on Wednesday.
The seven-day average for daily case increases is now 682, and the Quebec Institute of Public Health is reporting that there are 6,883 active cases in the province.
On Thursday, the province reported seven new deaths, but it removed one from the overall total after an investigation found that the death was not caused by COVID-19.
Quebec reported zero deaths in the past 24 hours, five between March 11 and March 16, and two before March 11.
Since the pandemic began, 10,576 deaths due to the novel coronavirus have been reported in Quebec.
Hospitalizations in Quebec dropped Thursday with the province reporting 13 fewer patients receiving care for a total of 519 hospitalizations. After a spike in intensive care unit patient numbers Wednesday (when 16 new were reported) the province announced that 101 people are in th ICU with COVID-19 — a decrease of six.
Health-care professionals have now administered 832,469 vaccinations in Quebec, an increase of 26,225 since Wednesday. That number is 9.8 per cent of the population.
On March 16, 33,906 samples were analyzed. (Quebec releases its testing data from two days prior to its daily updates).
REGIONAL DATA
Montreal reported the highest increase in cases in the province (318 new, 111,829 total), followed by Monteregie (73 new, 43,057 total), and Laval (63 new, 26,107 total).
Three deaths were reported in Montreal (4,584 total), and one death was reported in Mauricie-et-Centre-du-Quebec (508 total), Outaouais (168 total), and Laval (880 total).
