New cases continue to decline in Quebec

A day before the first anniversary of the coronavirus's arrival in Canada, Quebec reached 253,633 cumulative cases of COVID-19 during the weekend, with 1,457 new cases, the second-lowest figure reported in more than a month.

In the time since Canada's first case was reported — in a man from Toronto who had travelled to Wuhan, China — this country has reported more than 745,000 cases of the virus, the bulk of which have been in Ontario and Quebec.

By May 2020, about one in four Canadians personally knew someone who had contracted COVID-19, according to a survey by the Association for Canadian Studies. That number now stands at about one in two, with Quebec in the lead at 59 per cent. Quebecers were also most likely to report that a family member had been infected with the virus (48 per cent) as opposed to a friend (38 per cent).

Despite knowing someone with COVID -19, 61.7 per cent of Canadians did not become more afraid of catching the virus.

Quebec reported another 41 deaths related to COVID-19 on Sunday. The province is currently dealing with 16,935 confirmed active cases of COVID -19, the lowest figure since mid-december.

The seven-day rolling average of cases in Quebec stood at 1,560 on Sunday, the lowest it has been since early December — though Premier François Legault said last week he hasn't ruled out extending lockdown measures beyond their expected end date of Feb. 8.

Hospitalizations in Quebec are of concern to officials, particularly in Montreal and Laval where numbers are high. As of Sunday, there are 1,327 people receiving treatment for COVID-19 in Quebec hospitals, down 56 from Saturday.

On Sunday, the Jewish General Hospital confirmed an outbreak in its palliative care centre. It did not say how many people were affected, but the regional health authority said the service has been moved to another area of the hospital and patients and staff are being tested as the source is investigated.

The latest available data in Montreal showed that 696 of Quebec's hospitalizations are in the city, including 112 in intensive care. The city's test positivity rate for COVID-19 stands at about 8.8 per cent as of Friday — a decrease from the week before, but still twice the provincial average. Its reproduction rate is currently under one, meaning each infected person is transmitting it to fewer than one other person.