COVID-19: Quebec health institute projects hospitalizations will plateau in next 2 weeks
Global News
The number of new hospitalizations is projected to remain relatively steady over the next two weeks at around 68 cases daily, according to a Quebec health research institute.
A government health research institute released new projections Wednesday indicating COVID-19 hospitalizations in Quebec are expected to plateau after weeks of steady declines.
“For the first time since the peak of the fifth wave, which took place in mid-January, projections show a stabilization in the number of new hospitalizations,” the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux said in a statement.
The number of new hospitalizations is projected to remain relatively steady over the next two weeks at around 68 cases daily. The institute is also forecasting a “relative stabilization” in the total number of patients hospitalized and a decrease in intensive care cases.
More than half of regular beds and one-third of intensive care beds used by COVID-19 patients involve people who were admitted for a reason other than the disease and were subsequently declared positive.
Quebec reported six more deaths linked to COVID-19 on Wednesday, with a drop of 30 patients in hospital with the disease. Health authorities said 1,222 people were in hospital after 67 patients were admitted in the previous 24 hours and 97 were discharged. There were 69 patients in intensive care, a decline of eight patients.
Dr. Karl Weiss, an infectious disease specialist at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, said Wednesday the gradual lifting of restrictions in Quebec and elsewhere hasn’t had a major impact on the health system, and it’s time to stop invoking catastrophic scenarios as rules are relaxed.
He told an event organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal that rather than speaking of future waves of COVID-19, it should be seen as endemic like the flu.
