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       Quebec Premier Francois Legault speaks during a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic at the legislature in Quebec City on Aug. 17.

       Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press

       Quebec is cancelling two concerts that were intended to be experiments examining the impact of COVID-19 on large gatherings.

       Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx said today in a news release that rising COVID-19 cases in the province make conditions too difficult to hold the two events that were to host up to 25,000 people.

       The concerts had been scheduled for the Quebec City area in September in collaboration with researchers at Université Laval.

       Meanwhile, Quebec is reporting 436 new cases of COVID-19 today and one more death attributed to the novel coronavirus.

       The Health Department says hospitalizations remained stable compared with Tuesday, at 88, and 28 people were in intensive care, a rise of one.

       Officials say 41,426 doses of vaccine were administered Tuesday and the province’s public health institute says 85.7 per cent of residents 12 and over have received at least one dose of vaccine and 76.1 per cent are considered adequately vaccinated.

       This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.