COVID-19 in Quebec: What you need to know Monday

• On Monday, Quebec reported 1,115people in hospital (an increase of 27from the previous day), including 53in intensive care (adecrease of threefromthe previous day).
• The province reported 1,614new cases of COVID-19 and onedeath.
• Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 959,212confirmed cases, and 14,325people have died.
• The province also reported a total of18,617,904doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered, including 4,886doses in the last 24 hours.
• 91 per cent of the eligible population in the province (agedfive and up) have received one dose of the vaccine;87per cent have received two doses, and 53 per cent have received three doses.

*The new cases are those reported to the Quebec government only. They are believed to be an underrepresentation of the virus's spread, given the limited availability of PCR tests and use of home testing kits.

*Quebec's Health Ministry announced it will no longerreport itsCOVID-19 numberson the weekend.

The province's public health director held a rare Sunday news conference,where he urged Quebecers to exercise more caution in the face of a potential sixth wave of COVID-19.

Dr. Luc Boileau came short of confirminganother pandemicwave of infections, but said the spike in cases in recent weeks driven by the Omicron subvariant BA.2suggests oneisimminent.

He said the BA.2 variant could soon beresponsible for at least two thirds of COVID-19 cases in Quebec.

Despite several regions having seen a surge in cases, including Montreal,Quebec has no plans to reintroduce public health restrictions from previous waves, Boileau said.

The province is still planning to all but eliminate mandatory masking by mid-April.

Quebec sending mixed signals, health experts say

Simon Bacon, a professor inbehavioural medicine at Concordia University,said the government is sending mixed signals.

"I think it's the contradiction that people pick up on," he said. "So we're removing restrictions, we're about to hit a sixth wave. So what that tells most people is thatcases will go up, but that's not really important."

Benoit Barbeau, a virologist at the Universit du Qubec Montral (UQAM), says Quebec will experience a similarsituation to countries such as France and the United Kingdom, where cases have risen sharply, exacerbated by the highly contagious Omicron subvariant, known as BA.2.

"We see what's happeningin Europe,"said Barbeau, in an interview with Radio-Canada. "We are going to live through this too.

Barbeau said it remains to be seen how intense the rise in cases will be, but said Quebecers should not automatically expect that each successive wave will be weaker than the last.

"That's not necessarily the trajectory that the virus will take. We could perhaps have another variant that is more dangerous," he said.

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