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Jump to sections in this article:
Overview
Vaccination
Demographics
Testing
Potential exposure advisories
Note: the province will no longer release daily case figures on the weekend, so this daily article will likewise not run on weekends.
Nova Scotia announced two new cases of COVID-19 today, Friday, July 23.
Both cases are in Nova Scotia Health’s Central Zone; one is a close contact with a previously announced case, and the other is related to travel and is the third case connected to the HMCS Halifax.
There are now 12 known active cases in the province. No one is in hospital with the disease.
Here are the daily new case numbers and the seven-day rolling averages (today at 1.7) since March 28:
Here is the active caseload since March 28:
Vaccination
Yesterday, 15,161 doses of vaccine were administered. So far, a total of 1,271,948 doses of vaccine have been administered, of which 541,389 were second doses. As of end of day yesterday, 75.2% of the entire population has received at least one dose of vaccine — this figure does not include about 8,000 military personnel living in NS who have been vaccinated through the military’s program.
The graph above shows the progress of vaccination over time, as captured weekly on Fridays. The blue line is people with one dose only; the green line is people with two doses; the yellow line is people with at least one dose, and the orange line represents 75% of the entire population.
From March 15 to July 21, there were 4,195 new cases of COVID. Of those:
• 27 (0.6%) were fully vaccinated
• 233 (5.6%) were partially vaccinated
• 3,935 (93.8%) were unvaccinated
Over the same period, 254 people were hospitalized. Of those:
• 2 (0.8%) were fully vaccinated
• 28 (11%) were partially vaccinated
• 224 (88.2%) were unvaccinated
And sadly, over the same period 26 people died. Of those:
• 1 (3.8%) was fully vaccinated
• 3 (11.5%) were partially vaccinated
• 22 (84.6%) were unvaccinated
The woman who died earlier this week is not included in these stats but Strang said today that she was unvaccinated.
For the above stats, “fully vaccinated” means received the second dose and two weeks had passed. “Partially vaccinated” means received one dose and two weeks had passed. “Unvaccinated” means those not in the other categories.
I asked Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang today about unvaccinated children. Here’s our exchange:
Bousquet: Dr. Strang, the largest pool of unvaccinated people is, of course, the children under 11, under 12. There was a case in the US of a five year old dying with no symptoms previous. Are you still confident that opening up or doing away with restrictions among that group is safe?
Strang: So even though there are occasional cases of very severe disease, we know by and large that COVID produces relatively mild illness in the vast majority of younger people. We also don’t have a vaccine for them. It’s a reason why we need everybody else who can get vaccinated to be vaccinated. I’ve said it many times: where you get vaccinated, you don’t just protect yourself., you protect those around you who cannot be vaccinated, whether because of age or underlying health reasons. But again, we do know — it shouldn’t make us complacent — but it does give us reassurance that the vast majority of COVID illness in children is mild.
The province announced today that 22 people in Nova Scotia myocarditis or pericarditis after receiving an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna). Most of the cases required hospitalization but none required aggressive treatment.
“I’m not a cardiologist,” said Strang when speaking with reporters today. “But what what we call conservative therapy, which would basically medication — they don’t need any invasive procedures, etc.— and time and rest seems to lead to a complete resolution of this problem. A significant proportion do require some period of time and hospitalization. But again, it is conservative therapy and time and rest.”
To give some context, as noted above, 1,271,948 doses of vaccine have been administered.
The following drop-in, no-appointment-necessary vaccination clinics have been scheduled:
• Pine Ridge Middle School
625 Pine Ridge Ave., Kingston
Friday, July 23 and Saturday, July 24 from 10am-4:30pm
• Rath Eastlink Community Centre (Drive-thru)
East side parking lot
625 Abenaki Rd., Truro
Weekdays from 9am-3:30pm
• Dartmouth General Drive-Thru Community Vaccine Clinic
7 Mount Hope Avenue (behind Dartmouth General Hospital)
Open daily from 9am-5pm
A health card number and ID are needed at these sites. The vaccine being administered is Moderna, so only people 18 years old and over can attend.
The vaccination clinics will close on August 15.
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
• 6 in the Halifax Peninsula/Chebucto Community Health Network
• 1 in the Dartmouth/Southeastern Community Health Network
• 1 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 attributed to a Community Health Network
Total: 9
Eastern Zone
• 1 in the Cape Breton Community Health Network
• 0 in the Inverness, Victoria & Richmond Community Health Network
• 0 in the Antigonish & Guysborough Community Health Network
Total: 1
Northern Zone
• 0 in the Colchester/East Hants Community Health Network
• 0 in the Pictou Community Health Network
• 0 in the Cumberland Community Health Network
Total: 0
Western Zone
• 0 in the Annapolis and Kings Community Health Network
• 1 in the Lunenburg & Queens Community Health Network
• 0 in the Yarmouth, Shelburne & Digby Community Health Network
Total: 1
Testing
Nova Scotia Health labs completed 2,821 PCR tests yesterday. Additionally, between July 16 and 22 there were 3,517 antigen tests administered at the various pop-up testing 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
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-7pm
Centennial Arena, 3-8pm
Dartmouth Summer Sunshine Concert Series, 94 Alderney Drive, 6-8pm
Cole Harbour Legion, noon-7pm
Bedford Legion, noon-7pm
James McConnell Memorial Library, Sydney, 1-5:30pm
Woodside Ferry Terminal (Public Health Mobile Unit), 9:30am-5:30pmSaturday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-7pm
Dartmouth Summer Sunshine Concert Series, 94 Alderney Drive, 6-8pm
Cole Harbour Legion, noon-7pm
Bedford Legion, noon-7pm
James McConnell Memorial Library, Sydney, 1-4:30pm
Dewolf Park (Public Health Mobile Unit), 10-5:30pm
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.
There were no potential COVID exposure advisories issued yesterday.
There are currently no active potential COVID exposure advisories.
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