Quebec Sees 40% Jump in Covid Cases in 24 Hours

(Bloomberg) -- Quebec expects its daily Covid infections tally to jump 40% in just 24 hours, confirming its status as Canada’s virus hot spot once again as it multiplies measures to slow down hospitalizations. 

Premier Francois Legault said indoor gatherings at homes and restaurants will be limited to six people starting Sunday, the latest addition to a string of restrictions announced over the past week. A report on daily infections Thursday should probably show about 9,000 new cases, up from 6,361, he said. 

“Our goal remains the same, to protect our hospitals so that we can continue to treat all those who need it,” Legault said during a news conference. “We believe that the measures in place will keep the situation under control, but if we think that we need to do more, we won’t hesitate to do it.”

Legault is trying to salvage Christmas in a province that this year followed some of the toughest rules in North America, including a months-long curfew. But the staggering numbers don’t even fully capture the current picture as residents increasingly turn to rapid testing at home, or get discouraged by lines outsides testing centers. 

Canada has been caught by a surge in cases in the past few days, including at the highest levels of government. Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said six people in his office had tested positive for Covid. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced she too was infected earlier this week. 

Quebec’s infections put it once again at the epicenter of the crisis. In the spring of 2020, the province was unable to stop outbreaks at long-term care facilities, where hundreds of elderly residents died. To this day, the province has the highest death rate in Canada. 

There were 302 cases per 100,000 people on average in the past seven days in Quebec as of Tuesday evening, double the rate of neighboring Ontario and almost three times as much as British Columbia. 

Most worrying for the government is the number of people in the hospital, which reached 445 on Tuesday, a 84% jump from two weeks earlier. 

Even with a speedup in the vaccine booster campaign, hospitalizations could surpass levels seen last January if the new variant turns out to be as severe as delta, according to a study released Wednesday by Quebec’s INSPQ public health center. However, preliminary data from the U.K. and South Africa suggest omicron may be less likely to land patients in the hospital than cases involving the delta strain.

Another INSPQ study estimates that the new variant now accounts for 80% of new infections, barely three weeks after being first spotted in the province. Its unstoppable spread has sent Quebeckers scrambling for a diagnosis ahead of the holidays, with rapid tests distributed by the government disappearing from pharmacy shelves within hours. 

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