Portland Street in Downtown Dartmouth on a sunny June day, around noon, in 2021. there are multi-coloured low rise buildings, a Nova Scotia flag is flying, and another one with a red and white design. Traffic seems light. There are a few people walking on the sidewalk and others enjoying a patio.
Portland Street in Downtown Dartmouth in June 2021. — Photo: Zane Woodford

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Jump to sections in this article:
Overview
Vaccination
Demographics
Testing
Potential exposure advisories

Nova Scotia announced 11 new cases of COVID-19 today (Friday, June 18).

Nine of the new cases are in the Nova Scotia Health’s Central Zone — six are close contacts of previously reported cases, one is related to travel, and two are under investigation.

Two of the new cases are in the Eastern Zone, and both are related to travel.

There are now 93 known active cases in the province; six people are in hospital with the disease, three of whom are in ICU; 15 people are considered newly recovered today.

Click here to see Nova Scotia’s reopening plan.

Here are the daily new case numbers and the seven-day rolling averages (today at 9.0) since March 28, the last day Nova Scotia had zero new daily cases:

The usual mountain-shaped craggy line of case numbers.

Here is the daily case count since the start of the pandemic in March 2020:

The graph showing the three waves of the daily case counts since the beginning.

Here is the active caseload since March 28:

The Everest-like blue mountain shape that is the active cases.

And here is the active caseload for the duration of the pandemic:

The three waves of active cases since the beginning.


Vaccination

The pie chart showing the one dose blue section, the green two-dose section, and the grey unvaccination section, which grows incrementally smaller every day.


Yesterday, 15,591 doses of vaccine were administered; a total of 752,599 doses have been administered; of those, 73,600 were second doses. As of end of day yesterday, 69.9% of the entire population has received at least one dose of vaccine.

The following graph charts the province’s weekly progress (as recorded on Fridays) towards meeting the goals for each stage of the reopening:

A graph of weekly progress, represented by 4 multi coloured lines, and a blue line which slopes upward to the right to join them.

The next graph shows the progress (also captured weekly on Fridays) of first and second doses:

Another chart with multi coloured lines, with three lines sloping upward and one orange line level across the top which represented our goal of 75 percent vaccinated.

Between March 15 and June 15, 4,066 people tested positive for COVID in Nova Scotia. Of those:
• 25 (0.6%) were fully vaccinated
• 218 (5.4%) were partially vaccinated
• 3,823 (94%) were unvaccinated

In that period, 250 people were hospitalized. Of those:
• 2 (0.8%) were fully vaccinated
• 27 (10.8%) were partially vaccinated
• 221 (88.4%) were unvaccinated

And 24 people died over that time. Of those:
• 1 (4.2%) was fully vaccinated
• 3 (12.5%) were partially vaccinated
• 20 (83.3%) were unvaccinated

“Fully vaccinated” is defined as two weeks past receiving the second dose, while “partially vaccinated” is two weeks past receiving the first dose.

This morning, the province announced that it will start inviting those who received their first dose on or before May 14 to reschedule their second dose for an earlier appointment. Those people will be notified in several batches of emails sent out over the next few days. People who did not book their first dose with an email address can call 1-833-797-7772 to reschedule.

People 12 years old and older can book a vaccination appointment here.

People in rural areas who need transportation to a vaccine clinic should contact Rural Rides, which will get you there and back home for just $5. You need to book the ride 24 hours ahead of time.


Demographics

The active cases across the province are distributed as follows:

Central Zone
• 45 in the Halifax Peninsula/Chebucto Community Health Network
• 8 in the Dartmouth/Southeastern Community Health Network
• 10 in the Bedford/Sackville Community Health Network
• 0 in the Eastern Shore/Musquodoboit Community Health Network
• 0 in the West Hants Community Health Network
• 1 not assigned to a Community Health Network
Total: 64

Eastern Zone
• 20 in the Cape Breton Community Health Network
• 1 in the Inverness, Victoria & Richmond Community Health Network
• 0 in the Antigonish & Guysborough Community Health Network
Total: 21

Northern Zone
• 1 in the Colchester/East Hants Community Health Network
• 3 in the Pictou Community Health Network
• 0 in the Cumberland Community Health Network
Total: 4

Western Zone
• 2 in the Annapolis and Kings Community Health Network
• 2 in the Lunenburg & Queens Community Health Network
• 0 in the Yarmouth, Shelburne & Digby Community Health Network
Total: 4


Testing

A woman has pulled down her mask to get a swab from a man wearing full PPE
A woman gets swabbed at one of the rapid testing sites. Photo: Lisa Barrett

Nova Scotia Health labs completed 5,602 PCR tests yesterday. This does not include the antigen tests administered at the rapid-testing pop-up sites.

You do not need a health card to get tested.

Pop-up testing (antigen testing) is for asymptomatic people over 16 who have not been to the potential COVID exposure sites (see map below); results usually within 20 minutes. Pop-up testing has been scheduled for the following sites:

Friday
Alderney Gate, 2-6pm
Halifax Central Library, noon-7pm
Halifax Convention Centre, 2-9pm
Centennial Arena, noon-7pm
Shelburne Community Centre, noon-7pm
Spinners Menswear (mobile pop-up event), 329 Charlotte St. Sydney, 2-7pm

Saturday
Alderney Gate, noon-7pm
Shubie Park (mobile pop-up event), main parking lot at the end of Locks Rd, noon-7pm
Halifax Central Library, noon-7pm
Halifax Convention Centre, 2-9pm
Centennial Arena, noon-7pm
Sackville Sports Stadium, 11am-6pm
Spinners Menswear (mobile pop-up event), 329 Charlotte St. Sydney, 2-7pm
Chester Legion, noon-7pm

Sunday

Alderney Gate, noon-7pm
Halifax Central Library, noon-7pm
Halifax Convention Centre, 2-9pm
Centennial Arena, noon-7pm
Spinners Menswear (mobile pop-up event), 329 Charlotte St. Sydney, 2-7pm
Chester Legion, noon-7pm

You can volunteer to work at the pop-up testing sites here or here. No medical experience is necessary.

You can also get PCR testing at the Nova Scotia Health labs by going here. Appointments can be made for the IWK, or for various locations in each of the health zones (appointments may not be available at each site).


Potential exposure advisories

Public Health only issues potential exposure advisories when they think they may not have been able to contact all close contacts at that locale. The large majority of potential exposure sites never make it onto a public advisory.

The following potential COVID exposure advisories were issued last night:

Anyone who worked at or visited the following locations on the specified dates and times should visit covid-self-assessment.novascotia.ca/ to book a COVID-19 test, regardless of whether or not they have symptoms. You can also call 811 if you don’t have online access, or if you have other symptoms that concern you.

For the following locations, if you do not have any symptoms of COVID-19 you do not need to self-isolate while you wait for your test result. If you have symptoms of COVID-19 you are required to self-isolate while you wait for your test result, as are the other members of your household.

  • NSLC (752 Sackville Drive, Lower Sackville) on June 12 between 4:45 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. It is anticipated that anyone exposed to the virus at this location on the named dates may develop symptoms up to, and including, June 26.
  • Aerie – MicMac Mall (Suite 119 – 21 MicMac Blvd., Dartmouth) on June 12 between 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. It is anticipated that anyone exposed to the virus at this location on the named dates may develop symptoms up to, and including, June 26.
  • IKEA (645 Cutler Avenue, Dartmouth) on June 13 between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. It is anticipated that anyone exposed to the virus at this location on the named dates may develop symptoms up to, and including, June 27.
  • Posh Pearl (171 Main Street, Dartmouth) on June 14 between 2:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. It is anticipated that anyone exposed to the virus at this location on the named dates may develop symptoms up to, and including, June 28.
  • Costco (230 Chain Lake Drive, Halifax) on June 13 between 2:15 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. It is anticipated that anyone exposed to the virus at this location on the named dates may develop symptoms up to, and including, June 27.
  • Atlantic Superstore (210 Chain Lake Drive, Halifax) on June 13 between 3:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. It is anticipated that anyone exposed to the virus at this location on the named dates may develop symptoms up to, and including, June 27.

We’ve collected all the active advisories for potential COVID exposures on bus routes and flights here.

The updated potential COVID exposure advisory map is below; you can zoom in and click on the coronavirus icons to get information about each site.


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Tim Bousquet is the editor and publisher of the Halifax Examiner. Twitter @Tim_Bousquet Mastodon

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3 Comments

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  1. Now that we have three weeks of breakthrough data, it’s interesting to look at weekly numbers – with the huge caution that with the small numbers of cases, the results shouldn’t be over-interpreted. But about 20% of cases are breakthrough cases, in both weeks. Or put another way, 70% of the population is responsible for 21% of the cases.

    57 cases this past week
    0 fully vaccinated
    12 partially vaccinated
    45 unvaccinated

    107 cases the previous week
    1 fully vaccinated
    19 partially vaccinated
    87 unvaccinated

  2. How do we find out when cases under investigation are resolved and whether it was travel, close contact or unknown/community spread?