THIS place to impose health tax on unvaccinated, 45% ICU patients not vaccinated

Canada's Quebec province is seeing a sudden rush of people taking appointments for their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine after the government announced to penalise individuals unvaccinated against the virus. "It's encouraging!" tweeted Christian Dube, Quebec's Health Minister.

Quebec has seen the highest number of Covid-related deaths in Canada and is currently facing a surge in cases. On Tuesday, Quebec Premier François Legault announced that it would be the first in the nation to financially penalise the unvaccinated. The fee has not yet been decided, but will be 'significant', he said.

Last week, the Quebec province administration announced that it would require proof of vaccination to shop in government cannabis and liquor stores. A curfew is also in place from 22:00 to 05:00 each day. On Tuesday, Quebec's death toll from Covid reached 12,028. Covid-19 patients in intensive care who have not been vaccinated is 45%, provincial data showed.

Quebec vaccine data

About 7,000 appointments were taken on January 11 for the first Covid-19 vaccine dose.

Up by 2,000 from a day before when around 5,000 appointments were taken for vaccination.

As per Quebec's Health Minister, 107,000 vaccine doses were administered on Tuesday.

The appointments for the first dose of Covid vaccine were taken by people from all age groups.

Earlier it was announced that the province will impose a new health tax on unvaccinated individuals.

Only about 12.8% of Quebec residents are not vaccinated, but they make up nearly a third of all hospital cases.

Federal data says just over 85% of Quebec residents had received at least one vaccine dose by January 1.