COVID LINKED TO 10% INCREASE IN QUEBEC DEATHS

The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a 10 per cent jump in the number of deaths in Quebec in 2020 over the previous year, the province’s statistics agency reported Thursday. The Institut de la statistique du Quebec noted in its report that 74,550 people died last year in Quebec, which is 6,750 more than in 2019. The agency said it’s normal for the number of deaths to rise every year because of Quebec’s growing and aging population, but it considers a jump of this magnitude to be an exception. “The rise in the number of deaths in Quebec in 2020 is linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of which were particularly marked between the end of the month of March and the beginning of the month of June,” the institute wrote on its site.