Quebec adds 61 new COVID-19 cases as hospitalizations continue to fall

Quebec reported 61 new cases and one additional death Monday as the COVID-19 health crisis continues across the country.

The latest update comes as the province announced it will longer provide pandemic-related updates on weekends and statutory holidays. A total of 239 new infections were recorded over the past three days, but the government did not break them down for each weekend day.

The immunization campaign saw another 53,894 shots of the novel coronavirus vaccine administered since the last update. More than 10 million doses have been given to date — a step Health Minister Christian Dubé celebrated on social media.

“Each time a Quebecer receives the vaccine, it is one more step towards a return to normalcy,” he wrote on Twitter.

The province is also making headway among those aged 18 to 29. Dubé says 70 per cent of that age group have received their first dose or booked an appointment to get one.

READ MORE: Canada to receive 7.1M COVID-19 vaccine doses this week

Meanwhile, health officials say a delivery of 703,170 doses of the Pfizer vaccine is expected to arrive this week. Quebec has received more than 11.5 million doses since the start of the vaccination rollout.

Hospitalizations related to the virus, meanwhile, continued to drop. The total stood at 78, a decrease of six from last Friday. This includes 23 patients in intensive care units, which fell by two since last week.

When it comes to screening, the most recent information available shows 10,719 tests were carried out Saturday.

Quebec’s tally of cases has reached 376,431 while the pandemic has killed 11,236 people in the province.

Recoveries from COVID-19 have topped 364,000 in the province.

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—with files from The Canadian Press