Quebec detects first Brazilian variant COVID-19 case as province adds 792 infections, 10 deaths

Quebec is reporting 792 new cases and 10 additional deaths tied to the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday.

Health officials say one of those deaths occurred in the past 24-hour period, while the other fatalities were retroactively tallied from earlier in the month.

The province’s case count stands at 294,652. Recoveries have surpassed 277,000 throughout the course of the health crisis.

The death toll attributable to the novel coronavirus, which remains the highest in Canada, has reached 10,503.

In Quebec, the number of hospitalizations related to the pandemic rose by five to 581. Of them, there are 112 people in intensive care units, an increase of two.

Vaccination, meanwhile, continues to ramp up. The province gave another 18,101 jabs Tuesday for a total of 599,833 administered doses to date.

As of Wednesday, all Quebecers over the age of 70 can now register for their first shot. The government hopes to lower the minimum age requirement to 65 for Montreal later this week.

When it comes to screening, 30,772 tests were given Monday.

Quebec confirms first Brazilian variant case

The province is also reporting its first confirmed COVID-19 case linked to a more contagious variant first detected in Brazil, known as P.1.

Authorities recorded Wednesday a total of 80 new variant cases confirmed through sequencing, including one in Montreal of the P.1 variant.

Quebec now has a total of 335 confirmed variant cases.

Of those, 235 are of the B 1.1.7 variant first detected in the United Kingdom and 97 are of the B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa, almost all in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region.

Eight of the province’s 16 health regions have now confirmed variant cases, led by Montreal with 193.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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