• On Tuesday, Quebec reported 1,634 people in the hospital (up 23 from the previous day), including 54 in intensive care (up from three from the previous day).
• The province reported 625 new cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths.
• Since the pandemic began, there have been 1,058,691 confirmed cases and 15,298 people have died.
• The province also reported 5,350 healthcare workers who were absent for COVID-related reasons.
• 91 percent of the province’s eligible population (aged five and older) has received at least one dose of the vaccine; 55 percent received a third dose and 13 percent received a fourth dose.

*The new cases were only reported to the Quebec government. They are believed to underrepresent the spread of the virus given the limited availability of PCR tests and the use of home testing kits.

*The Quebec Department of Health stopped reporting COVID-19 numbers over the weekend.

At least 13 people at six long-term care facilities in Quebec who died during the first wave of the pandemic died, likely from a lack of care, according to a coroner’s report released Monday.

Foroner Géhane Kamel’s inquiry looked at what went wrong in nursing homes and retirement homes in the early months of the 2020 pandemic.

One patient, Olga Maculavicous, died of kidney failure possibly caused by dehydration. Between March 26 and March 31, 2020, there were no notes in her record at the home. Kamel wrote it was possible that “lack of care was the cause of death.”

Leon Barrette was 93 when he died at CHSLD Herron on March 29, 2020, barely two days after being transferred there from McGill University Health Center.

Kamel wrote in the report that the information in Barrette’s file was so sparse, “we have the impression that he was forgotten and died alone.”

The coroner forwards the report to the pandemic management

The lack of independence granted to Quebec’s health director may have slowed the government’s response early in the pandemic, as hundreds died in nursing homes across the province, according to a coroner’s report.

Coroner Géhane Kamel released a report on Monday after months of investigations into deaths in retirement homes where the pandemic killed more than 5,000 people in the spring of 2020.

“We have tolerated the unbearable. It was a sad day for medicine in Quebec,” she wrote.

Kamel was also scathing in her recounting of the events that unfolded at one of the long-term care homes she examined in the study, CHSLD Herron in Dorval, Que. 47 of the 53 deaths analyzed in the study occurred in Herron in spring 2020.

Quebec’s mask mandate has ended

Quebec became the first province in Canada to impose a mask mandate following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and on Saturday it became the latest province to allow residents to remain maskless in most indoor public spaces.

Quebecers are no longer required to wear masks in most indoor public spaces. The province’s mandatory mask mandate has been in effect for a total of 21 consecutive months since July 2020.

Most indoor places in a Quebecer’s daily life no longer require a mask, including grocery stores, gyms and restaurants. Masks are still required on public transport and in hospitals. The Health Ministry said on Friday that taxis are considered public transport and require masks.

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