Quebec reports 15,293 COVID-19 cases as major hospital postpones half of surgeries

Quebec is reporting 15,293 cases of COVID-19 on Monday and 15 more deaths linked to the virus.

Health officials say the number of hospitalizations linked to the disease rose by 165 to 1,396, with 181 patients in intensive care, an increase of 19 in the last 24 hours.

The province said 47,386 COVID-19 tests were analyzed Sunday with a positivity rate of 30.2 per cent. There are currently 1,504 active outbreaks in the province.

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This comes as Quebec City’s main hospital network, the CHU de Québec-Université Laval, said it will need to postpone half of its surgeries and medical appointments starting Wednesday.

The hospital network also said 10 of the 16 intensive care beds reserved for COVID-19 were occupied as of Sunday.

Hospital CEO Martin Beaumont says only 27 of the 48 surgical rooms will be available this week in order to transfer staff to COVID-19 patients’ care instead.

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He said that as many as 10,000 medical appointments could be delayed, allowing roughly 50 nurses to also be redirected to the pandemic’s ward.

The hospital network says 783 health-care workers are in isolation, in addition to the 600 nurses already missing from the workforce before the pandemic’s fifth wave hit.

–with files from the Canadian Press

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