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

• On Wednesday, Quebec reported1,381people in hospital (a decrease of 58 from the previous day), including 82 in intensive care (adecrease of eight fromthe previous day).
• The province reported 1,630new cases of COVID-19 and 20deaths.
• Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 924,309confirmed cases, and 14,016people have died.
• The province also reported Wednesday a total of18,440,659doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered, including7,089doses 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;86 per cent have received two doses, and 51per cent have received three doses.

Quebec's Health Ministry announced it will lift some public health measures on March 12 instead of March 14, as originally planned.

That includes all restrictions on capacity in public spaces. There will be no more rules about how many people can sit at a table in a restaurant. Bars and casinos will go back to regular schedules. Dancing and karaoke will be permitted. There will no longer be a limit on visitors to seniors' homes.

The vaccination passport will no longer be required either.

Public Health also says it expects the use of masks to be phased out by mid-April for public spaces and at the earliest, by May for public transit.

Quebec's workplace safety board (CNESST) says distancing will be reduced to one metre in a work setting starting on March 7, but wearing maskswill remainmandatory if there is no physical distancingor physical barriers.

Masks will no longer be required in mid-April, the CNESST saidin a statement Wednesday. The exception to the rule will be those transporting workers by bus or plane.

In May, all mask rules may be lifted, but this still all depends on the epidemiological situation, the statement says.

Fewer health workers absent

The number of health-care workers absent due to COVID has dropped dramatically since the new year.

In early January, there were about 20,000 workersabsent from hospitals and care homes because they were infected with COVID-19 or were in preventive isolation after being exposed to SARS-CoV-2.

But as of today, March 2, new figures from the Health Ministry show that3,051 workers are off because they have COVID-19 and another 2,373 are in isolation. In addition, there are 486 workers awaiting test results and 320 who are not working because they have refused to be tested. The total number of absences is now6,230.

Looking for clues in the water

Quebec will resume the monitoring of wastewater to better understand the spread of COVID-19.

This news comes just three days after data about wastewater surveillance was revealed in Ontario.It suggested there are early signs of a resurgence of COVID-19 viral load across that province.

Quebec had been at the forefront of testing wastewater for the virus, but funds for a pilot project dried up in December, just as the highly contagious Omicron variant was spreading rapidly among the population.

While PCR tests remainunavailable to the general population, experts say testing wastewater is a useful tool in monitoring the spread of COVID-19.

North Shore region hit by Omicron

Quebec's North Shore region has the highest rate of COVID-19 transmission in the province.

There are 500 cases per 100,000 people in the northern region, which has a population of about 90,000. Provincewide, there are 171 active cases per 100,000 people.

Marlne Joseph-Blais, spokesperson for the local health authority, said Tuesday that despite the high transmission rate compared with previous waves of the virus the situation is under control.

"We are noting a downward trend in the number of cases and hospitalizations in the last three weeks," Joseph-Blais said in an interview.

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