Quebec Plans To Allow 4th Vaccine Doses For Vulnerable Populations
An announcement is expected next week.
Enter sign for a vaccination site in the Montreal Olympic Stadium complex with three Quebec flags in the background.
Quebec has been enjoying springtime weather and loosened restrictions this week — but we're not out of the COVID-19 woods just yet. Quebec will likely be recommending a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for vulnerable individuals, according to the health minister.
In a press conference on March 17, Minister Christian Dubé confirmed that a fourth dose may be on the horizon for at-risk people.
"We should maybe ask for a fourth dose for certain vulnerable people. We need to have prudence about the people that we can vaccinate," Dubé said in response to a question posed by a journalist about rising global COVID-19 numbers. "We need to be ready because the virus is still there."
National Director of Public Health Dr. Luc Boileau is expected to make an announcement about fourth doses next week, the minister said.
As of March 16, over four million Quebecers have received their third dose, meaning that more than half (52%) of the province is triply vaccinated.
"In Quebec, for the moment, the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) is under control," the government of Quebec says on its website. That said, COVID-19 is still spreading "in every region of Quebec." Nearly one million (942,282) Quebecers have been infected since 2020, with 1,170 new cases and 13 deaths reported on March 18.
As of March 18, 1,021 people are hospitalized for COVID-19, 45 of whom are in intensive care.