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Overview of today’s cases
Vaccination
Testing
Potential exposure advisories
Nova Scotia announced 745 new cases of COVID-19 today, Wednesday, Jan. 5. The new cases are people who received a positive PCR test result from a Nova Scotia Health lab; it does not include people who tested positive using a take-home rapid (antigen) test.
By Nova Scotia Health zone, the new cases break down as:
• 459 Central
• 128 Eastern
• 95 Western
• 63 Northern
There are now 48 people in hospital with the disease, nine of whom are in ICU. By age, those hospitalized are 26 to 94 years old, and the average age is 68.
The hospitalization figure is for those who are admitted to hospital because of COVID. It does not include those who were admitted to hospital for other reasons but tested positive for COVID as part of the admissions screening, nor those who contracted COVID in any of the several hospital outbreaks.
The vaccination status of those 48 people is:
• 4 (8.3%) people have had 3 doses
• 28 (58.3%) have had 2 doses
• 2 (4.2%) have had 1 dose
• 14 (29.2%) are unvaccinated
Note: only 10.9% of the entire population is unvaccinated
Hospital outbreaks
There is a new outbreak at Inverness Consolidated Memorial Hospital, with fewer than five patients testing positive.
There are additional cases at ongoing hospital outbreaks:
• Halifax Infirmary — four new cases, for a total of 16 patients
• New Waterford — six new cases, for total of 11 patients
• Victoria General — one new case, with a total of fewer than five patients
Public Health estimates there are 6,636 active cases in the province, but no one has any idea how many cases there actually are.
Vaccination
Yesterday, 13,191 doses of vaccine were administered:
• 650 first doses
• 255 second doses
• 12,286 third doses
In total, there have been 1,828,474 doses of vaccine administered, which break down as:
• 69,612 people with only the first dose
• 628,286 people with the second dose but not the third
• 167,430 people with three doses
As of end of day yesterday, 89.0% of the population have received at least one dose of vaccine:
• 7.2% with one dose only
• 64.7% with two doses but not three
• 17.2% with three doses
• 10.9% unvaccinated
Appointments for boosters are now open to people 30 and over for whom 168 days have passed since their second shot.
Vaccination appointments for people 5 years of age and older can be booked here.
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.
Additionally, the province has scheduled several vaccination clinics for booster shots, as follows:
New community clinics will offer vaccine by appointment starting:
- Thursday, January 6, at the Halifax Forum
- Monday, January 10, at the Acadia Festival Theatre in Wolfville
- Monday, January 17, at Mic Mac Mall in Dartmouth
- Monday, January 24, at the Nova Scotia Community College campus in Truro.
Some existing COVID-19 testing centres will also offer vaccine by appointment. The following centres will start vaccinations on Monday, January 10:
- Rath Eastlink Community Centre, Truro
- Pictou County Assessment Centre, New Glasgow
- Cumberland County Assessment Centre, Amherst
- Antigonish Market Square, Antigonish
- Grand Lake Road Fire Hall, Sydney
- Berwick Fire Hall, Berwick
- Mariners Centre, Yarmouth.
The Digby Station testing centre will offer vaccine by appointment starting Monday, January 24.
Testing
Nova Scotia Health labs completed 4,736 PCR tests yesterday, with a positivity rate of 15.7%.
Now, if you test positive with a rapid (antigen) test, you no longer will follow that up with a PCR test. Instead, you are assumed to definitely have COVID, and you and your household are to self-isolate as required.
But take-home rapid testing kits are no longer widely available — a limited number are available at the pop-up testing sites, but otherwise symptomatic people can schedule an appointment at the PCR testing sites, where they will be given a rapid test kit to take home (only those in high-risk categories will be given a PCR test).
Pop-up testing has been scheduled for the following sites:
Thursday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-7pm
Annapolis Royal Legion, 11am-3pm
Tatamagouche Legion, noon-4pm
Glace Bay Legion, noon-5pmFriday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-4pm
Chester Basin Fire Hall, 11am-3pm
Pictou Legion, 11am-3pm
Sydney Mines & District Community Centre, 11am-5pmSaturday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-7pm
Alderney Gate, 10am-2pmSunday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-4pm
You can volunteer to work at the pop-up testing sites here or here. No medical experience is necessary.
Potential exposure advisories
School-connected case notifications have ended.
We’ve collected all the active advisories for potential COVID exposures on bus routes and flights here.
You can zoom in and click on the icons on the map below to get information about other sites.
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