By Daniel J. Rowe, CTV News Montreal
MONTREAL -- New cases of COVID-19, active cases and deaths due to the novel coronavirus dropped in Quebec on Sunday.
Quebec reported Sunday that 674 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours bringing the total number of infections to 297,592 since the start of the pandemic.
The number is more than 100 less than the 789 reported Saturday, and the seven-day average number of cases is now 711.
Of those who tested positive, 280,030 are reported to have recovered from the novel coronavirus, which is 800 more than on Saturday.
The Quebec Institute of Public Health is reporting that there are 7,022 active COVID-19 cases in the province, 131 less than on Saturday.
Quebec also added five deaths due to the disease (in Monteregie and Montreal) bringing the total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic to 10,540.
Of those new deaths, three are reported to have occurred in the past 24 hours, one between March 7 and March 12, and one before March 12.
On Sunday, the province says there are four fewer people receiving care in Quebec hospitals for COVID-19 bringing that total to 547. Of those, 100 people are in intensive care wards, a decrease of six.
After surpassing 30,000 vaccine doses in a single day on Saturday, the province reported that 31,611 more vaccinations were administered.
The total number of vaccinations in the province is now 715,581, which is 8.4 per cent of the total population.
On March 12, 26,203 samples were analyzed. (Quebec releases its testing data from two days prior to its daily updates).
Only Monteregie (70 new, 42,781 total), Laval (85 new, 25,847 total), Gaspesie-Magdalen Islands (three new, 1,738 total), and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (12 new, 8,888 total) reported more new cases Sunday than they did on Saturday.
Montreal (296 new, 110,703 total) reported the highest increase in cases.
Of the new deaths, three were reported in Montreal (4,564 total), and two in Monteregie (1,496 total).