Quebec has a COVID-19 test positive rate of 1.4%, the highest level since late May.

The positive rate of the COVID-19 test in Montreal-Quebec reached 1.4% on Sunday. This is the highest since late May.

According to the Ministry of Health, new COVID-19 infections are also on the rise. Authorities reported 154 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and confirmed 347 new infections on Friday and Saturday. Quebec has reported an average of 139 new cases per day over the past seven days, up from an average of 57 cases a week ago.

Dr. Donald Vinh, an infectious disease specialist at McGill University Health Center, said this trend was a concern. The rise in positive rates in the state “means that community infections are still ongoing,” he said in an interview Monday.

He is also worried because the rate in Quebec on Sunday reflects less overall testing compared to late May. On May 31, Quebec recorded a test positive rate of 1.5% based on 15,783 tests. On Sunday, Quebec analyzed 11,202 tests.

The big question, according to Vinh, is whether the surge in positive rates is a sign that Quebecs should expect more cases in late August and September when classes at schools, junior colleges and colleges resume. How is it? “What happens when you’re indoors, if it’s already increasing when you’re in a” safe “place outdoors? That’s a concern, “he said.

Despite the increase in cases, deaths and hospitalizations associated with the new coronavirus have not followed.

The Department of Health, which stopped providing updates on COVID-19 over the weekend, said no deaths from the new coronavirus have been reported in the state since Thursday. The number of hospitalized patients increased by one from the previous report to 61, and 17 were in the intensive care unit. It hasn’t changed since the update on Friday.

Health officials said 38,247 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were given on Sunday, and the Quebec Institute for Public Health found that 84.6% of residents over the age of 12 received at least one vaccination and 68% were properly vaccinated. I reported that I was vaccinated.

Dr. Andre Veilette, an immunologist at the Montreal Institute of Clinical Research and a member of the federal COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, said the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state could be higher than test data suggest. He said it was highly sexual.

“I think we should be worried, but what we are even more worried about is that we are not worried enough,” Veilette said. “We are all a little complacent.”

According to Vaillette, the increase in the number of cases in the state is likely the result of a more contagious delta variant of the virus.

However, data from the Quebec Institute for Public Health on Monday show the proportion of positive COVID-19 cases with reduced mutations in the week ending July 24, compared to the previous week. However, Judith Fafhrd, a medical microbiologist at the Quebec National Laboratory, said the data were incomplete.

She explained that it takes time to collect and process results from the state’s network of distributed laboratories. The most reliable data on variants is from the week ending July 17, showing an increase in the proportion of cases associated with delta variants from the previous week.

She said the proportion of cases associated with alpha mutants, which accounted for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases in Quebec in mid-May, has also declined since the last week of the month.

“It would be amazing if we were different from the United Kingdom, other states and the United States, so it’s probably a variant of Delta that will replace Alpha,” she said.

“We know that the Delta variant is in Quebec and is growing.”

This report by Canadian Press was first published on August 2, 2021.

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This story was funded by Facebook and the Canadian Press News Fellowship.