1) Even as Quebec has made laudable progress in reducing the number of #COVID19 hospitalizations while ramping up vaccinations, hot spots remain — a warning that the #pandemic will probably continue here for months to come. In this thread, I will examine some of those hot spots.
2) As of Wednesday, 35% of Quebec’s population had been partially inoculated and 3.69% had received the second dose. Federal guidelines recommend vaccine coverage of 75% with one dose and 20% with two doses to achieve collective immunity.
3) Among the potential #COVID19 hot spots are hospitals and eldercare homes. Emergency-room workers at St. Mary’s Hospital received their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine in January, and 18 still got infected in an outbreak. montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…
4) While attention was focused on three regions — Capitale-Nationale, Outaouais and Chaudière-Appalaches — #COVID19 cases snuck up in another part of Quebec, Bas-Saint-Laurent. At midnight Friday, the government will impose emergency measures in that region.
5) The Health Ministry did not release data on #COVID19 outbreaks Thursday, but reports emerged of a cluster of cases at Donnacona penitentiary in the Quebec City area. Seven inmates and seven guards have been infected at the maximum-security prison.
6) And in a sign of how far the #coronavirus can spread, a #COVID19 outbreak has hit the work site of the Romaine hydro-electric construction site on the North Shore. Six workers have tested positive. Authorities evacuated the site of a total of 70 workers.
7) Meanwhile, on Thursday the more transmissible variant cases rose by 885 to a cumulative total of 30,041 in Quebec. The chart below — which the provincial public health institute no longer makes public — shows Montreal’s rate of variants rising to 393.75 per 100,000 population. 
8) Montreal, for its part, continues to fare relatively well, with a seven-day rolling average of 12.41 cases per 100,000 residents. In addition, 37.32% of the city’s population has received at least one vaccine dose.
9) Hospitalizations due to #COVID19 dipped by three to 216 in the city, while the number of ICU stays rose by one to 68. Provincially, hospitalizations dropped by 20 to 623, the lowest level since Nov. 19. But the chart below shows a modest increase among people in their 50s.
10) As Ontario and other jurisdictions have shown, #COVID19 can sneak up on a population quickly. Even in Israel, where 56% of the population is fully vaccinated, authorities have detected the B.1.617 variant from India in four individuals who received both shots. End of thread.
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