Quebec's Vaccine Passport Will Eventually Require 3 Doses To Be Valid

Changes are coming to Quebec's vaccine passport system. At a press conference on Thursday, Health Minister Christian Dubé announced that you'll eventually need three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, rather than two, to be considered adequately protected and gain access to places that require a vaccine passport in Quebec.

"We will expand the vaccine passport to three doses," Dubé said. However, he clarified that the change won't happen until everyone has had the chance to receive a third dose, over the course of the coming months.

"Right now, a vaccine passport is valid with two doses," he said. "We haven't determined the date [this will change] because we can't ask people to meet the requirements when they haven't had the chance to be vaccinated, but we will expand the vaccine passport to three doses."

At the same conference, Dubé also announced that Quebec would be making vaccine passports mandatory to access the SAQ and SQDC starting January 18.

Quebec reported 15,874 new COVID-19 cases and 203 more hospitalizations on January 6.

The Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS), meanwhile, projects that COVID-19 patients could occupy as many as 3,000 hospital beds within the next two weeks, "well above the level three" occupancy threshold "established by the MSSS and the thresholds observed during previous waves," the institute said.

This is a developing story. Check back for more details.