MONTREAL — Outlying regions in Quebec that were spared during the winter Omicron wave are being hit hard by the sixth wave, Health Minister Christian Dubé said Thursday, but he added that the government isn't planning new health orders.

The jump in infections and hospitalizations was expected after most restrictions were lifted in mid-March, Dubé told reporters in Quebec City. Quebecers should be careful and learn to coexist with the virus, he said.

"There is no reason at the moment … to change the strategy we have, because people have to learn to live with the virus, to continue to protect themselves," Dubé said.

Parts of the province that weren't as affected as Montreal during the past wave are the ones currently seeing significant rises in infections due to the more transmissible BA.2 subvariant of Omicron. The affected regions include Côte-Nord, Abitibi, and from Quebec City heading east toward the Gaspé peninsula. 

"The main reason is because those are regions that were hit less by Omicron," Dubé said. Montreal, for instance, has about 208 cases per 100,000 people. In contrast, Côte-Nord has 750 cases per 100,000 people.

Across the province, more than 10,000 health workers are off the job due to COVID-19, he added.

The interim public health director will decide soon whether to lift the province's mask mandate by mid-April as planned or to extend it, the minister said.

On Wednesday, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec announced the province had entered a sixth wave of the pandemic. In a brief email, a spokesperson for the health institute said the determination was made based on the epidemiological data and rising number of cases involving the BA.2 subvariant, present in 65 per cent of cases in Quebec.

Meanwhile, health officials reported 12 more deaths on Thursday attributed to the novel coronavirus and a 38-patient rise in hospitalizations. There were 1,238 people are in hospital with the disease after 151 patients were admitted in the past 24 hours and 113 were discharged. There were 66 people in intensive care, a rise of six.

The province reported 3,319 new cases confirmed through PCR testing, which is limited to certain high-risk groups. About 18.4 per cent of tests conducted came back positive.

Authorities said 17,145 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered on Wednesday.

A public health institute on Wednesday projected that an average of 200 patients with COVID-19 are expected to be admitted every day to the province's hospitals within two weeks' time. It added that the number of people needing intensive care should also rise during that period but is not expected to put significant pressure on the health system.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2022.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press