Ottawa (Canada), December 22: Canada's Quebec province reported 5,043 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, breaking its record of new COVID-19 infections again.
It was the highest single-day total reported in the country since the pandemic began.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault tweeted on Tuesday that his government is considering tightening restrictions further, just one day after announcing sweeping measures that suddenly closed schools, bars and movie theaters.
Meanwhile, the city of Montreal in Quebec announced to reinstate a state of emergency in an effort to stem the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said on Tuesday that "with the number of cases going up with the Omicron variant, we want to be ready if there's an outbreak in a shelter, for example. We will need to isolate people, we will need more beds, more sites."
Up to date, Quebec's total number of COVID-19 cases has hit 495,337 since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Quebec government on Tuesday. On this day last year, Quebec had 2,116 new cases of COVID-19, less than half the amount recorded Tuesday.
Of today's new cases, 1,219 people are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated with one dose received less than 14 days ago; 238 are people who had one dose more than two weeks ago and 3,586 are people who received two doses of a vaccine more than seven days ago.
Of the new hospitalizations, 32 are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people who received one dose less than two weeks ago; none are people who had one dose more than two weeks ago and 27 are people who received two doses over one week ago.
As of Dec. 20, a total of 7,237,205 Quebecers, or 89 percent of the eligible population aged five and up, have received their first dose of a vaccine and 6,646,507 people, or 81 percent, have received two.
Of those eligible for a third dose, 742,730 Quebecers, or 9 percent, have received it.
The number of Omicron variant cases is now 64 confirmed and 728 presumptive in Quebec. The numbers for the other variants currently stand at 45,665 Alpha, 460 Beta, 610 Gamma and 31,815 Delta.
Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam warned that if Canadians don't reduce their contacts over the next several weeks, the country's hospitals will be overwhelmed.
Canada reported over 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, though some of the cases were from the weekend, with cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant soaring and quickly overtaking Delta in many areas of the country.
In its early days, Omicron appeared to be affecting mostly younger people. But Tam says, as it spreads, it is going to affect more and more workers and workplaces and so it is crucial that workplaces give their employees the most effective protection possible.
Tam also said it is time to ditch the cloth masks. They are not going to protect you against Omicron.
"You cannot have a single-layered cloth mask. The medical masks are better at filtering viruses." she said, adding that N95-type respirators are a better fit for people's faces.
Source: Yonhap