For the third day in a row, Quebec is reporting over 2,000 new cases of COVID-19. On Monday, health officials recorded 2,108 new cases of the illness, bringing the total caseload since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic to 179,093.
The number of hospitalizations continued its steady climb with 38 more patients requiring care in the last 24 hours for a total of 1,048 COVID-19 patients in hospital. Of those, 146 are in the intensive care unit, unchanged since Sunday.
Health officials added 30 new deaths on Monday, bringing the grim total to 7,766. Of the 30 deaths, two are said to have taken place in the last 24 hours, 27 took place between Dec. 14 and Dec. 19 and one before Dec. 14.
In a tweet Monday, Health Minister Christian Dubé said numerous sites across the province will be receiving doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, allowing for vaccination to begin at those locations this week.
“It’s excellent news,” he said. “But we must continue to respect guidelines if we want to put the brakes on the increase in cases.”
To date, 4,831 doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine have been administered, including 115 on Sunday.
The Quebec government says it plans to vaccinate 650,000 people by April 1, 2021, depending on the number of vaccine doses it receives.