Jump to sections in this article:
Overview of today’s cases
Vaccination
Demographics
Testing
Potential exposure advisories
Nova Scotia announced 127 new cases of COVID-19 today, Tuesday, Dec. 14.
By Nova Scotia Health zone, the new cases break down as:
• 68 Eastern
• 42 Central
• 11 Northern
• 6 Western
In total, 344 cases* have so far been tied to the outbreak at St. Francis Xavier University.
There are no new cases reported today at Parkland Antigonish, and no one from the community is in hospital. All staff and residents are fully vaccinated, and residents of Mary’s Court have had a booster shot.
There remain just six people in hospital with the disease, two of whom are in ICU.
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, 7,215 doses of vaccine were newly recorded as administered:
• 1,968 first doses
• 266 second doses
• 4,981 third doses
In total, there have been 1,688,836 doses of vaccine administered, which break down as:
• 55,230 people with only the first dose
• 739,526 people with the second dose but not the third
• 51,518 people with three doses
By end of day yesterday, 87.9% of the entire population (including young children) have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 82.2% have received at least two doses.
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.
Demographics
Again, because of the backlog, only 66 new cases have been entered into the provincial COVID dashboard (this underreports the total). Those cases by age cohort:
• 6 aged 0-11
• 8 aged 12-19
• 32 aged 20-39
• 14 aged 40-59
• 5 aged 60-79
• 1 aged 80+
The active cases across the province (as reported on the dashboard, not as announced) are distributed as follows:
Central Zone
• 114 in the Halifax Peninsula/Chebucto Community Health Network
• 26 in the Dartmouth/Southeastern Community Health Network
• 52 in the Bedford/Sackville Community Health Network
• 0 in the Eastern Shore/Musquodoboit Community Health Network
• 2 in the West Hants Community Health Network
• 43 not assigned to a Community Health Network
Total: 237
Eastern Zone
• 4 in the Cape Breton Community Health Network
• 4 in the Inverness, Victoria & Richmond Community Health Network
• 133 in the Antigonish & Guysborough Community Health Network
Total: 141
Northern Zone
• 15 in the Colchester/East Hants Community Health Network
• 7 in the Pictou Community Health Network
• 14 in the Cumberland Community Health Network
Total: 36
Western Zone
• 8 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: 13
Testing
Nova Scotia Health labs completed 4,303 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, but they are restocked regularly.
Additionally, pop-up testing has been scheduled for the following sites (take-home tests are also available at these sites):
Tuesday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-7pm
Alderney Gate, 4-6pmWendesday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-4pm
Alderney Gate, 11am-2pm
Cole Harbour Place, 11m-6pm
Sackville Lions Club, 11am-6pmThursday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-4pm
Cole Harbour Place, 11m-6pm
Bedford Legion, 11am-6pmFriday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-4pm
Hammonds Plains Community Centre, 10m-5pm
Bedford Legion, 11am-6pmSaturday
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.
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 five schools:
• Hammonds Plains Consolidated
• Millwood High School
• Gaspereau Valley Elementary
• Horton High School
• École Beaubassin
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 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.
Subscribe to the Halifax Examiner
The Halifax Examiner is an advertising-free, subscriber-supported news site. Your subscription makes this work possible.
We have many other subscription options available, or drop us a donation. Thanks!
The province has changed their guidance.
This statement – ” Yellow caution signs are “precaution notifications” (fully vaccinated people need take no action beyond looking for symptoms),” – is no longer true.
Fully vaccinated people are now asked to get a PCR test if they are at a site with a precautionary notification. See her: http://policy.nshealth.ca/Site_Published/covid19/document_render.aspx?documentRender.IdType=6&documentRender.GenericField=&documentRender.Id=90254
“Some libraries may run out of the packs, but they are restocked regularly.” Another news source says that the libraries will only be re-stocked once and that it may take up to a week for that to happen. This other source further recommends that anyone wanting to get a box of tests either call the the library first or check the library’s social media.