MONTREAL — Quebec set a pair of records for COVID-19 injections, the province’s health minister announced Friday.

Christian Dube said officials inoculated 74,927 people on Thursday — the highest single-day number of Quebecers vaccinated since the campaign started. That daily total included 15,522 doses administered in pharmacies, also a record. 

Those numbers are likely to increase as Quebec expands vaccinations to 1,500 pharmacies across the province. 

Dube tweeted Friday that the seven-day average for shots is 66,000 per day, well above what had been planned for April. Health officials said Quebec has vaccinated 26 per cent of the population with at least one dose.

The pace of the vaccine rollout bodes well for the province’s plan to offer every adult a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by the Fete nationale holiday on June 24, Dube said. 

Quebec reported 1,527 new COVID-19 cases Friday and seven more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus. There are 13,941 active reported cases in the province.

Montreal reported 355 cases, followed by the Quebec City area, with 294, and Chaudiere-Appalaches, south of the capital region, with 204.

Hospitalizations were up by three patients, to 664, and eight more people were in intensive care, for a total of 167.

Quebec has reported 334,071 COVID-19 infections and 10,785 deaths linked to the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2021.

The Canadian Press