Montreal adding hundreds of hospital beds as city remains COVID-19 epicentre

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and the city's public health director, Dr. Mylène Drouin, made the announcement during a Wednesday afternoon press conference, their first since Quebec's nightly curfew came into effect.

Health officials have been warning that the province's hospitals could be overwhelmed in the coming weeks and have raised the prospect that hospitals might need to invoke a protocol that determines which patients are admitted to intensive care units. Wednesday's updated data also shows that 744 people are now being treated for COVID-19 in Montreal hospitals, including 117 in intensive care.

Health workers administered 7,855 doses of vaccine yesterday, for a total of 107,365.

"We're looking also at immunity in older persons", Drouin said. With 35 additional deaths, the daily toll has lightened compared to the last few days. The country's most populous province has recorded a total of 5,127 deaths and 224,984 people infected.

As of Wednesday, there are 2071 new cases reported, marking 32,529 active cases of the virus out of the 234,695 instances of infection that have occurred to date.

She said the majority of people who are catching COVID-19 are getting it in a social context, from household members, family and close friends.

Drouin says there have been 114 positive cases of COVD-19 among the homeless population and 68 across the network of people who work at shelters.