(Ed note: There will be further updates from today’s press conference posted on this story shortly, and on our Facebook here.)

– Two $11,500 summary offense tickets issued to StFX and the StFX student union

– Province offering up to $7500 to support small business impacted by COVID-19 restrictions

Release:

Today, December 17, Nova Scotia is reporting 394 new cases of COVID-19

There are 295 cases in Central Zone, 54 cases in Eastern Zone, 27 cases in Northern Zone and 18 cases in Western Zone.

Due to delays with data entry into Panorama (public health’s case management system), the number of positive cases being released today are lab results, not Panorama results. This continues to better reflect the situation on the ground.

Because of a spike in testing and positive cases, public health is experiencing some delays in follow-up. Public health will try to contact anyone confirmed positive by the lab within 24 hours to provide information on required isolation and testing. All cases will be asked to contact their close contacts. This may be the only contact a positive case has with public health. Detailed follow-ups are being prioritized to support contact tracing in schools, long-term care, healthcare facilities, correctional facilities, shelters and other group settings.

All close contacts, including those who are fully vaccinated, now need to isolate for 72 hours after the exposure and then get a lab-based (PCR) test. Those who are fully vaccinated can stop isolating after receiving a negative lab test. Those not fully vaccinated must continue to isolate, following the instructions for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated, found at https://www.nshealth.ca/information-covid-19-close-contacts

It is important that anyone who tests positive with a rapid test self-isolates immediately and gets a PCR test, regardless of vaccination status. If the PCR test is negative, they can stop isolating if they have no symptoms and are fully vaccinated.

On December 16, 16 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 256 cases of COVID-19 with an episode date between December 9 and December 16. Of those:

— 172 (67.2 per cent) were fully vaccinated
— 6 (2.3 per cent) were partially vaccinated
— 78 (30.5 per cent) were unvaccinated

There have been 7,381cases from March 15 to December 16. Of those:

— 1,137 (15.4 per cent) were fully vaccinated
— 427 (5.8 per cent) were partially vaccinated
— 5,817 (78.8 per cent) were unvaccinated

There were 341 people hospitalized. Of those:

— 23 (6.7 per cent) were fully vaccinated
— 33 (9.7 per cent) were partially vaccinated
— 285 (83.6 per cent) were unvaccinated

Forty-four people died. Of those:

— 11 (25.0 per cent) were fully vaccinated
— 3 (6.8 per cent) were partially vaccinated
— 30 (68.2 per cent) were unvaccinated

There were 63,399 rapid tests administered between December 10 and 16. This includes 5,618 rapid tests at the pop-up sites in Halifax and surrounding communities and 57,781 through the workplace screening program. Another 66,992 home rapid tests were distributed at the pop-up sites, 400,000 were distributed at libraries, and 167,000 were distributed to children in public school in grades pre-primary to six. An additional 60,000 tests were distributed to community partners for children aged 3 to 11 who are not in public school.

On December 16, Nova Scotia Health Authority’s labs completed 7,585 tests.

Seven people are in hospital, including two in ICU.

As of December 17, 1,718,187 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered. Of those, 792,129 Nova Scotians have received their second dose, and 73,668 eligible Nova Scotians have received a third dose.

Source: Release