Quebec public health expects slow decline in number of new COVID-19 cases
Posted July 29, 2022 4:06 pm.
Last Updated July 29, 2022 6:57 pm.
Quebec’s public health director says he expects the number of new COVID-19 cases in the province to decline slowly.
Dr. Luc Boileau told reporters in Montreal today that he expects the seventh wave of the pandemic to reach a plateau in the coming days, followed by the slow decline.
Quebec began vaccinating children under five against COVID-19 on Monday, but Boileau says he won’t be trying to convince parents to give their children the vaccine.
“It seems that it’s a personal choice for parents. There are advantages to being vaccinated, but it’s not something that it needs to be done except for kids that really need it and that they are really vulnerable,” he explained.
He says that while vaccination has benefits for children, it is only necessary for those who are at high risk of developing serious illness, adding that few children have been hospitalized due to the disease.
WATCH:Quebec health update – Jul 29
Quebec today reported 16 additional deaths linked to the novel coronavirus and a 46-patient decline in the number of hospitalizations.
“There has been a lot of hospitalization do more than 2,222 two days ago. So it’s a lot of us really a decision, but most of them are not in relation to cases that needed to be treated because of COVID. It was essentially cases for a lot more than 50% that were found of patients that were coming for other reasons,” said Dr. Boileau.
The Health Department says 2,176 people are in hospital with the disease, including 68 people in intensive care, a decline of one from the day before.
“We are in our seventh wave. We have no clear, compelling indication that that wave has reached its peak or that the or that even better it’s on the downside or on the downswing. We have no evidence of that,” said Dr. Donald Vinh, medical microbiologist and infectious diseases specialist.
“People can argue whether it’s with COVID or because of COVID, but that is a complete disconnect from reality because if you are a patient associated with COVID in the hospital and you can in some people want to argue that they’re not there because COVID brought them in the hospital. It doesn’t matter because all the other measures that are required to safely investigate them and to make sure that that doesn’t lead to transmission to other patients is time consuming and resource consuming.”
-with files from the Canadian Press
