Jump to sections in this article:
Overview
Vaccination
Demographics
Testing
Potential exposure advisories
Nova Scotia announced just six new cases of COVID-19 today, Wednesday, September 15 — a dramatic turnaround from the high case counts of recent days, signalling that perhaps the outbreak in the Northern Zone has been contained and most of the community tested.
Of the new cases:
• 3 are in Nova Scotia Health’s Central Zone — 2 related to travel, 1 under investigation
• 2 are in the Northern Zone — both close contacts of previously reported cases
• 1 is in Eastern Zone and is travel-related
There are now 159 known active cases in the province. Four people are in hospital with the disease, but not in ICU. Twenty people are considered newly recovered, which means they are no longer contagious and not necessarily that they aren’t sick.
Vaccination
Yesterday, 3,043 doses of vaccine were administered — 1,641 second doses and 1,402 first doses A total of 1,475,023 doses of vaccine have been administered, of which 707,887 were second doses. As of end of day yesterday, 79.0% of the entire population (including young children) have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 72.9% have received two doses.
However, the approximately 8,000 military personnel stationed in Nova Scotia were vaccinated through the military’s vaccination program and are not included in the above percentages; if they are included, then the double-dosed percentage increases to 73.7% of the entire population.
Obviously, 73.7% is not 75.0%, which is the hard threshold for the start of Phase 5, which was originally planned to start today. Dr. Strang has done a lot of hand-waving to explain that away, but in the end it doesn’t matter as Phase 5 is delayed until Oct. 4. There’s no doubt that the province will reach 75% of the population fully vaccinated by Oct. 4.
People 12 years old and older can also book a vaccination appointment 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
Of the 6 latest cases:
• 5 are aged 20-39
• 1 is aged 40-59
• 1 is aged 60-79
I’ve been asking for the province to separate 0-11 (unvaccinated) and 12-19 (highly vaccinated), and today that has finally happened. In total, since the start of the pandemic, 794 people ages 0-11 and 517 ages 12-19 have tested positive for COVID. Starting tomorrow, I’ll have daily case counts for both age cohorts.
The active cases across the province are distributed as follows:
Central Zone
• 25 in the Halifax Peninsula/Chebucto Community Health Network
• 19 in the Dartmouth/Southeastern Community Health Network
• 10 in the Bedford/Sackville Community Health Network
• 0 in the Eastern Shore/Musquodoboit Community Health Network
• 1 in the West Hants Community Health Network
• 4 not assigned to a Community Health Network
Total: 59
Eastern Zone
• 3 in the Cape Breton Community Health Network
• 0 in the Inverness, Victoria & Richmond Community Health Network
• 2 in the Antigonish & Guysborough Community Health Network
Total: 5
Northern Zone
• 70 in the Colchester/East Hants Community Health Network
• 4 in the Pictou Community Health Network
• 16 in the Cumberland Community Health Network
Total: 90
Western Zone
• 4 in the Annapolis and Kings Community Health Network
• 0 in the Lunenburg & Queens Community Health Network
• 1 in the Yarmouth, Shelburne & Digby Community Health Network
Total: 5
Testing
Nova Scotia Health labs completed 4,010 PCR tests yesterday. This does not include the antigen tests administered by the pop-up testing sties, or those conducted at home.
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:
Wednesday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-7pm
Alderney Gate, 10am-2pm
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
Nova Scotia Health issued several potential COVID exposure advisories yesterday.
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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