Quebec reported 32 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus on Thursday and 1,464 new infections — the highest daily total of new cases since the pandemic began.
Health Minister Christian Dube said on Twitter that the jump in case numbers shows that the battle against the virus is “far from won,” and he urged Quebecers to respect public health measures and limit their contacts to slow the spread of the virus.
The regions with the highest number of new cases were Montreal with 336; Saguenay, north of Quebec City, with 211; and Monteregie, southeast of Montreal, with 187. Saguenay remains Quebec’s most affected region on a per capita basis with almost 413 active cases per 100,000 people — more than three times the rate of Montreal.
Health authorities said eight of the newly attributed COVID-19 deaths had taken place within the previous 24 hours. They said the number of people in hospital rose by 20 from a day earlier, to 675, and 90 of those people were in intensive care — a decrease of three.
A COVID-19 outbreak at a long-term care centre in Montreal continued to grow, with five new cases reported on Thursday. Forty-five residents of the Maimonides geriatric centre have active cases of COVID-19 and six people have died, according to Health Department data.
Meanwhile, Quebec’s Education Department said Thursday that elections for English-language school boards, previously scheduled for Dec. 20, will be postponed for the second time.
Quebec has reported a total of 136,894 COVID-19 infections and 6,947 deaths to the virus.
