MONTREAL — Quebec's health minister urged residents on Wednesday to quickly get a second dose of COVID-19 vaccine after officials reported a jump in new infections.

Officials reported 133 new cases and a test-positivity rate of one per cent, compared with 73 cases Tuesday and a rate of 0.6 per cent.

"An (increase) of infections is recorded, the Delta variant is already present here," Christian Dubé said on Twitter. "It is up to each Quebecer to quickly get their 2nd dose to (lessen) the impact of the spread of the virus on the health network."

But despite the slight rise in cases, officials reported no new deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus — the last death linked to the pandemic was reported July 22. Hospitalizations were also down, dropping by five patients compared with the prior day, to 61, and 19 people were in intensive care, a drop of two. Quebec has 864 active reported cases.

The province's public health institute says about 83.7 per cent of residents 12 and older have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 64.2 per cent are considered adequately vaccinated. Quebec says 71,350 doses of vaccine were administered Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, the Health Department said Wednesday more than 920,000 people had signed up for the province's vaccination lottery. Draws will take place every Friday in August and the grand prize will be drawn the first Friday in September.

The province has reported a total of 377,034 COVID-19 infections and 11,240 deaths linked to the virus.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2021.

The Canadian Press