with various hospital emergency rooms exceeding capacity and the public left to manage its own risk, upward trends in covid-19 indicators are once again causing concern in quebec .
at a news conference last week, public health director dr. luc boileau urged quebecers to remain vigilant amid the rise, but maintained there are no immediate plans to bring back restrictions. he cited projections suggesting hospitalizations could peak around 1,600 over the next few weeks, as well as the reduced severity of covid-19 cases among younger people who’ve been vaccinated.
the rise in hospitalizations, fuelled by newer variants, comes as experts warn it could be a difficult summer for montreal emergency rooms as the number of people visiting hospitals reaches pre-pandemic levels and staff shortages continue across the network, both as a result of holidays and covid-19 (6,347 health-care workers are absent because of the virus, the government said monday).
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on friday, the last day for which data is available, quebec announced 1,294 people were in hospital with covid-19 in quebec, including 42 in intensive care. hospitalizations have been rising since about mid-june. at the same time, according to index santé, quebec emergency rooms are currently operating at 114 per cent capacity on average .
dr. matthew oughton, an infectious-diseases specialist at the jewish general hospital, said that for people to be able to manage their own risk amid the pandemic — which is the approach the government has taken — they need timely and accurate information about the presence of the virus in their communities.
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months after a pilot project came to an end, quebec finally resumed wastewater testing , which oughton said would provide people living in those areas with a general idea of covid-19 trends. but the data available online is from about two weeks earlier.
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