178 new cases of COVID-19 announced in Nova Scotia on Wednesday, Dec. 15; schools to go on holiday early

Jump to sections in this article:
Overview of today’s cases
Vaccination
Demographics
Testing
Potential exposure advisories

Nova Scotia announced 178 new cases of COVID-19 today, Wednesday, Dec. 15.

By Nova Scotia Health zone, the new cases break down as:
• 113 Central
• 55 Eastern
• 5 Northern
• 5 Western

There remain just six people in hospital with the disease, two of whom are in ICU. No one in the Eastern Zone (Antigonish is in the Eastern Zone) is hospitalized with the disease. As well, there are no new cases at Parkland Antigonish.

On the other hand, there were 14 school-connected case notifications issued yesterday (see the list in the “Potential exposure advisories” section below), and the province announced today that the holidays will start for most students at the end of the school day Friday.

Because of the backlog in data gathering by Public Health, I don’t have active case or recovery numbers, but as I see it, those aren’t so important — active cases are self-isolating and so aren’t a threat to anyone else, and “recovery” only means they’re no longer contagious and not necessarily that they’re, er, recovered.

Vaccination

Yesterday, 9,171 doses of vaccine were administered:
• 5,307 first doses
• 335 second doses
• 3,529 third doses

In total, there have been 1,698,007 doses of vaccine administered, which break down as:
• 57,202 people with only the first dose
• 733,332 people with the second dose but not the third
• 58,047 people with three doses

By end of day yesterday, 88.1% of the entire population (including babies, toddlers, etc.) have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 82.3% have received at least two doses.

Vaccination appointments for people 5 years of age and older can be booked here.

Additionally, there are drop-in vaccination clinics (no appointment necessary) in the Western Zone in coming days, for anyone five years old or older, for first or second shots, at:

Bridgewater Superstore Community Room – upstairs (21 Davison Dr, Bridgewater)
• Wednesday, Dec. 15 from 2 to 7 p.m.

Clare Health Centre (8559, Highway 1, Meteghan Centre)
• Wednesday, Dec. 15 from 2 to 7 p.m.
• Friday, Dec. 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Middleton Fire Hall (49 Church St, Middleton)
• Wednesday, Dec. 15 from 2 to 7 p.m.

• North Queens Fire Hall (9793 Nova Scotia Trunk 8, Caledonia)
Thursday, Dec. 16 from 2 to 7 p.m.

West Pubnico Legion (668 NS-335, West Pubnico)
• Thursday, Dec. 16 from 2 to 7 p.m.

New Minas Fire Dept (6 Jones Road, New Minas)
• Thursday, Dec. 16 from 2 to 7 p.m.

Yarmouth Mariners Centre (45 Jody Shelley Dr, Yarmouth)
• Friday, Dec. 17 from 2 to 7 p.m.

Aylesford Fire Hall (1083 Park St, Aylesford)
• Friday, Dec. 17 from 2 to 7 p.m.

People in rural areas who need transportation to a vaccination appointment 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

Again, because of the backlog, only 112 new cases have been entered into the provincial COVID dashboard (this underreports the total). Those cases by age cohort:
• 18 aged 0-11
• 8 aged 12-19
• 60 aged 20-39
• 19 aged 40-59
• 4 aged 60-79
• 3 aged 80+

The active cases across the province (as reported on the dashboard, not as announced) are distributed as follows:

Central Zone
• 121 in the Halifax Peninsula/Chebucto Community Health Network
• 31 in the Dartmouth/Southeastern Community Health Network
• 64 in the Bedford/Sackville Community Health Network
• 0 in the Eastern Shore/Musquodoboit Community Health Network
• 3 in the West Hants Community Health Network
• 49 not assigned to a Community Health Network
Total: 268

Eastern Zone
• 6 in the Cape Breton Community Health Network
• 4 in the Inverness, Victoria & Richmond Community Health Network
• 184 in the Antigonish & Guysborough Community Health Network
Total: 194

Northern Zone
• 16 in the Colchester/East Hants Community Health Network
• 9 in the Pictou Community Health Network
• 14 in the Cumberland Community Health Network
Total: 39

Western Zone
• 10 in the Annapolis and Kings Community Health Network
• 1 in the Lunenburg & Queens Community Health Network
• 4 in the Yarmouth, Shelburne & Digby Community Health Network
Total: 15

Testing

Nova Scotia Health labs completed 6,940 tests yesterday. This does not include the antigen tests administered at the pop-up testing sites.

Self-testing kits are now available at libraries throughout the province. The kits come in packs of five, and there’s a limit of one pack per person. Some libraries may run out of the packs, so check with them first.

Additionally, pop-up testing has been scheduled for the following sites (take-home tests are also available at these sites):

Wendesday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-4pm
Alderney Gate, 11am-2pm
Cole Harbour Place, 11m-6pm
Sackville Lions Club, 11am-6pm

Thursday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-4pm
Cole Harbour Place, 11m-6pm
Bedford Legion, 11am-6pm

Friday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-4pm
Hammonds Plains Community Centre, 10m-5pm
Bedford Legion, 11am-6pm

Saturday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-7pm
Alderney Gate, 10am-2pm

Sunday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-4pm

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

There were school-connected case notifications issued yesterday for 14 schools:
• A.G. Baillie Memorial School, New Glasgow
• Cobequid Educational Centre, Truro
• F.H. MacDonald Academy, Thorburn
• G.R. Saunders Elementary School, Stellarton
• McCulloch Education Centre, Pictou
• Tatamagouche Regional Academy, Tatamagouche
• Upper Stewiacke Elementary School, Upper Stewiacke
• West Pictou Consolidated School, Pictou
• École acadienne de Pomquet, Pompuet
• Atlantic Memorial Terence Bay Elementary, Shad Bay
• Prospect Road Elementary, Hatchet Lake
• Sackville High, Lower Sackville
• Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School, Antigonish
• St. Andrews Consolidated School, St. Andrews

Additionally there were many potential COVID exposure advisories, especially in Antigonish..

We’ve collected all the active advisories for potential COVID exposures on bus routes and flights here. I’ll be adding schools to the map tonight.

The updated potential COVID exposure advisory map is below. Blue school icons denote school-connected case notifications. Yellow caution signs are “precaution notifications” (fully vaccinated people need take no action beyond looking for symptoms and getting tested), and red coronavirus icons means everyone must self-isolate & get tested. You can zoom in and click on the coronavirus icons to get information about each site.

* As originally published, this article misstated the number of cases tied to StFX.

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