Quebec surpasses 13,000 COVID-19 deaths, the highest in Canada As well, of those people 70 and older who died in the current wave, 22 per cent were unvaccinated and 34.7 per cent had received a third dose of vaccine more than seven days before their deaths.
The Health Department says 76 per cent of Quebecers 60 and over have received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and 94 per cent have received at least two.Dr.
Donald Vinh, an infectious disease specialist at the McGill University Health Centre, agrees with Nguyen. He said this month’s statistics — lower numbers of deaths in long-term care but higher numbers in the community — are the result of Quebec’s delayed third-dose vaccination campaign.“There were vaccination teams that went into those institutions,” Vinh said in an interview Tuesday, referring to private seniors residences and to long-term care homes, known in Quebec as CHSLDs.“So that was great — except if you were not institutionalized elderly,” he said.“If you were community-dwelling, that’s where the gap was.”Quebec began administering third doses in long-term care centres in mid-October.
The government didn’t make boosters available to people 80 and older living in the community until a month later, when the campaign to give third doses to long-term care and private seniors residents was coming to an end.