Quebec COVID-19 Hospitalizations Are The Highest They've Been During The Pandemic

According to the latest COVID-19 report in Quebec, there were officially over 2,000 people in hospital due to the virus as of January 6.

With 180 additional hospitalizations, the province tallied a total of 2,133 people in hospital. 22 more people were sent to intensive care, for a total of 229. In addition, 27 people were pronounced dead.

There are more hospital beds occupied by people with COVID-19 in Quebec now than at any other point in the pandemic. The record was broken with yesterday's announcement, when 1,953 people were hospitalized — exceeding the previous high of 1,866 set on May 12, 2020. On the previous day, Quebec broke a record for single-day hospital admissions.

The increase of 180 people in hospital is the fourth-highest since the pandemic began, according to Quebec's public data. Five of the six biggest single-day rises in hospitalizations have taken place in the last five days.

According to projections by Quebec's Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) released on Thursday, hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients could surpass 3,000 within two weeks.

As for Friday's case count, the province recorded 16,176 new infections. This case count should be taken with a grain of salt, however. Officials have warned that the tally is an undercount because of the advent of rapid at-home testing.

The government is planning to set up a system so that individuals can self-report rapid test results.

Even before the pandemic, Canada ranked almost dead last for the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people amongst so-called developed countries with universal health care, according to a 2019 report from Hospital News.

According to a 2020 report by Policy Options, Canada had 1.95 "acute care" beds per 1,000 people and 2.62 hospital beds per 1,000 people overall.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.