Today, December 31, Nova Scotia is reporting 618 new cases of COVID-19.
There are 429 cases in Central Zone, 64 cases in Eastern Zone, 48 cases in Northern Zone and 77 cases in Western Zone.
Because of a spike in testing and positive cases, public health is experiencing delays in follow-up. All cases should contact their close contacts. Public health is prioritizing contact tracing in long-term care, healthcare facilities, correctional facilities, shelters and other group settings.
Information about testing, self-isolation and case management is at: https://www.nshealth.ca/coronavirus .
Hospitals
The Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) is reporting outbreaks at the Halifax Infirmary, Dartmouth General Hospital, Victoria General site of the QEII Health Sciences Center, St. Martha’s Regional Hospital and New Waterford Consolidated Hospital. The number of patients impacted remains low (less than 10 at each facility), and all patients are being closely monitored and other infection prevention and control measures are being put in place. NSHA will provide a further update when more information is available.
Active Cases, Hospitalization, Tests, Vaccination Data
As of today, there are an estimated 5,117 active cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia. Of those, 34 people are in hospital, including 4 in ICU.
On December 30, NSHA’s labs completed 6,348 tests.
Rapid test data is not available today. Under the new testing strategy, the Province is changing how it will report this data moving forward to include test distribution numbers. Rapid test data will resume soon.
As of December 30, 1,791,016 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered. Of those, 794,817 Nova Scotians have received their second dose, and 133,044 eligible Nova Scotians have received a third dose.
Additional Resources:
Nova Scotians can find accurate, up-to-date information, handwashing posters and fact sheets at: https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus
Information on provincewide restrictions that took effect December 22 and other public health measures to help slow the spread of COVID-19 is available at: https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/restrictions-and-guidance/
More information on COVID-19 case data, testing and vaccines is available at: https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/data/
More information about public health text notifications of positive COVID-19 cases and close contacts is available here: https://www.nshealth.ca/news/public-health-notifying-positive-covid-19-cases-text-advising-notify-close-contacts
Source: Release
