Less serious than in the spring in hospitals

Even though the number of new daily COVID-19 cases has steadily reached last spring’s levels, that doesn’t mean the second wave is worse than the first. This is to forget that the number of people hospitalized is currently only a third of what it was in May.

The number of people hospitalized has still tripled since the end of the summer. Prime Minister François Legault worried last week about a “real risk of rupture” of the health system if the trend of recent weeks continues. “It means major surgeries that will have to be postponed. So we will not be able, within a reasonable time, to treat all Quebecers, ”he pointed out.

It works

However, yesterday, the National Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS) unveiled new forecasts which suggest that the new containment measures seem to be working, and that they should make it possible not to exceed the capacities of the health system.

More men with intensive care

Since the start of the pandemic, the number of women and men hospitalized has remained balanced, for a total of 8,742 people. However, we note that 63.5% of people in intensive care are men.

Hincreased hospitalizations

The number of hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 has started to climb again. After a drop recorded during the summer, the curve has started to climb steadily since the beginning of September, and has been holding above 400 since October 6. Since the end of September, the number of hospitalizations in intensive care represents 15% to 19% of the daily total of hospitalizations.

Ontario is doing better again

The neighboring province has also seen an increase in the number of hospitalizations since the beginning of the fall, but is far from Quebec. From July 24 to September 26, the number of hospitalizations remained below 100 people. From the end of September, hospitalizations started to climb and exceeded 200 hospitalizations per day on October 8.

Similar curve across Canada

The Canadian curve is similar to that of Quebec and Ontario. We note a slight increase from the end of September in the number of people hospitalized. Intensive care admissions, however, remained relatively stable. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 13,000 people have been hospitalized across the country.

• Half of those hospitalized since the start of the pandemic were over 71 years old.
• Patients under 18 represent 3% of hospitalizations.
• Half of people hospitalized since the end of July have been for more than 6 days.
• 22% of patients required intensive care

More young people hospitalized

The proportion of hospitalized patients under 50 has increased slightly since the spring, from 13.4% for the week of May 11 to 16.7% in the week of October 12.

In total, people aged 80 to 89 have been the most hospitalized since the start of the pandemic, i.e. 2,335 patients. Those under 20 are the ones who have visited the hospital the least, with a total of 108 hospitalized to date.

Sources: National Institute of Public Health of Quebec, Government of Canada, Government of Ontario. Data as of October 15.