Representative image of Quebec/ credit: Pixabay
Montreal/CMEDIA: The province of Quebec witnessed an increase in infections related to COVID-19, with reportedly 1,226 hospitalizations in the last 24 hours and five more deaths.
Quebec also recorded 1,272 positive PCR tests, almost double from the day before with 638 rapid tests recorded, 568 were positive.
The likelihood of re-infection increases, even if one had the virus previously or reportedly was adequately vaccinated, due to Quebec’s lack of masking requirements in crowded public spaces combined with the emergence of BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants
Prativa Baral, an epidemiologist and doctoral candidate at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was reported to say that with European countries currently experiencing a surge in cases, Quebec is expected to follow suit.
Although severe COVID-19 illness trends are stable or declining nationally, the overall proportion of BA.4 and BA.5 cases in the country is rising, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam tweeted on June 24.
There are concerns about the BA.5 subvariant becoming the dominant strain in Ontario, the head of the province’s COVID-19 science table was reported to say.
