As the health crisis continues, Quebec reported 701 new COVID-19 cases and two additional deaths Friday.
The number of pandemic-related hospitalizations increased by 15 to 298. In the past day, 35 patients were discharged from hospital but 50 entered. Of those patients, 91 are in intensive care units, a rise of one compared with the previous day.
Health Minister Christian Dubé said 80 per cent of newly admitted patients were not adequately vaccinated.
“This increase is worrying, we are closely monitoring the trend for the next few days,” he wrote on social media.
When it comes to vaccination, the province gave another 18,070 doses of the novel coronavirus vaccine in the past day. More than 12.8 million shots have been doled out to date.
Meanwhile, the latest screening information shows 37,463 tests were given Wednesday.
The province’s caseload stood at 406,429. Over the course of the pandemic, 11,349 Quebecers have died.
As of Friday, recoveries from the virus topped 388,000.
More beds for COVID-19 patients
Quebec’s health department confirmed Thursday it had asked hospital managers in five regions — including Montreal, Laval and the Outaouais — to increase the number of beds reserved for COVID-19 patients.
The increase is “primarily a result of the demand for intensive care beds for COVID patients,” health department spokeswoman Marjorie Larouche wrote in an email to The Canadian Press.
Adding to the number of beds reserved for those patients will reduce the number of beds available for other kinds of patients, she said.
A government health-care research institute, INESSS, said Thursday that while the number of new infections in the province has stabilized after rising for two months, it expected the number of hospitalizations linked to the disease to continue rising over the next three weeks.
—with files from The Canadian Press