Today, October 15, Nova Scotia is reporting 18 new cases of COVID-19 and 17 recoveries.

There are 12 cases in Central Zone, three cases in Western Zone and three cases in Northern Zone.

There is community spread in Central Zone, primarily among people aged 20 to 40 who are unvaccinated and participating in social activities.

On October 14, two schools were notified of an exposure(s) at their school. As always, all staff, parents and guardians are notified of exposures if a positive case (student, teacher or staff) was at the school while infectious. A list of schools with exposures is available online: https://backtoschool.ednet.ns.ca/school-exposures

There have been 106 cases of COVID-19 from October 7 to October 13. Of those:

— 24 (22.6 per cent) were fully vaccinated
— 5 (4.7 per cent) were partially vaccinated
— 77 (72.6 per cent) were unvaccinated

There have been 5,380 cases from March 15 to October 13. Of those:

— 290 (5.4 per cent) were fully vaccinated
— 345 (6.4 per cent) were partially vaccinated
— 4,745 (88.2 per cent) were unvaccinated

There were 296 people hospitalized. Of those:

— 8 (2.7 per cent) were fully vaccinated
— 29 (9.8 per cent) were partially vaccinated
— 259 (87.5 per cent) were unvaccinated

Thirty-two people died. Of those:

— 3 (9.4 per cent) were fully vaccinated
— 3 (9.4 per cent) were partially vaccinated
— 26 (81.3 per cent) were unvaccinated

As of today, Nova Scotia has 199 active cases of COVID-19. Of those, 14 people are in hospital, including one in ICU.

There were 29,673 rapid tests administered between October 8 and 14. This includes 4,773 rapid tests at the pop-up sites in Halifax and Dartmouth and 24,900 through the workplace screening program. Another 17,853 home rapid tests were distributed at the pop-up sites.

On October 14, Nova Scotia Health Authority’s labs completed 3,697 tests.

As of October 14, 1,543,667 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered. Of those, 745,517 Nova Scotians have received their second dose.

Since August 1, there have been 1,181 positive COVID-19 cases and four deaths. Cases range in age from under 10 to over 90. There are 978 resolved cases. Cumulative cases may change as data is updated in Panorama.

The province is renewing the state of emergency to protect the health and safety of Nova Scotians and ensure safety measures and other important actions can continue. The order will take effect at noon, Sunday, October 17, and extend to noon, Sunday, October 31, unless government terminates or extends it.

Testing advice:

Nova Scotians with or without symptoms can book a test at: https://covid-self-assessment.novascotia.ca/en for COVID-19 for COVID-19 testing centres across the province. Those eligible to receive asymptomatic testing are listed at: https://www.nshealth.ca/visit-covid-19-testing-site . Those with no symptoms who do not meet the criteria are encouraged to use one of the rapid testing pop-up sites if they want to be tested. Some public health mobile unit clinics also offer drop-in testing; this will be noted in promotions.

Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms is advised to self-isolate and book a COVID-19 test.

Anyone advised by public health that they were a close contact needs to complete a full 14-day quarantine, regardless of test results, unless they are fully vaccinated. If they are fully vaccinated at least 14 days before the exposure date, they do not need to self-isolate as long as they are not experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms. They should still get tested and should monitor for symptoms up to 14 days after the exposure date. If symptoms develop, they should get tested and self-isolate until they receive a negative test result.

Source: Release