Officials expect COVID-19 hospitalizations to continue decline
The number of hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 in Quebec is expected to steadily decline over the next two weeks, a provincial health research institute said Wednesday in its weekly projections.
The Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux said that within two weeks, the number of people with the disease hospitalized outside of intensive care is expected to decline to about 1,068, plus about 35 in intensive care.
Two weeks from now, officials expect to be seeing about 55 new hospitalizations per day linked to the disease.
Quebec's public health director, Dr. Luc Boileau, told reporters during a briefing on Wednesday that “all the signs are very encouraging.” New infections, hospitalizations and deaths are on a downward trend, he said.
“It shows we were right to prudently go slow,” he said about removing restrictions, such as the provincewide mask mandate, which will end on Saturday.
Boileau said masking is still recommended for vulnerable people and for people who are in close contact with others and who want to be protected. Masking remains mandatory, however, on public transit and inside health-care facilities, such as hospitals and longterm care homes.
Meanwhile, Quebec reported 23 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus Wednesday and 54 fewer infected people in hospital. The health department said 1,847 people were hospitalized with the disease after 111 patients were admitted in the previous 24 hours and 165 were discharged.
There were 62 patients listed in intensive care, a drop of four over the same period.
The province reported 1,101 new infections confirmed by PCR testing, with 7.7 per cent of tests administered Tuesday coming back positive.
Officials said 6,511 health-care workers remained off the job due to COVID-19.
Also Wednesday, the City of Montreal announced it would end its COVID-19 state of emergency on May 19. The local state of emergency has been in effect since Dec. 21, 2021, when the Omicron wave hit.