77 new cases of COVID-19 announced Friday; and here’s the weekly recap of vaccination numbers

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

Nova Scotia has announced 77 new cases of COVID-19 over two days, Wednesday and Thursday.

By Nova Scotia Health zone, the new cases are:
• 51 Central Zone
• 7 Eastern Zone
• 6 Northern Zone
• 13 Western Zone

Due to the large number of new cases under investigation, the Dept. of Health is no longer providing details about mode of transmission (i.e., travel, close contact, or under investigation). The department similarly stopped reporting mode of transmission during the third wave.

The department repeated that “there are signs of community spread among those in Central Zone aged 20 to 40 who are unvaccinated and participating in social activities.”

There are now 240 known active cases in the province. Eleven people are in hospital with the disease, four of whom are in ICU. Sixty-one people are considered newly recovered, which means they are no longer contagious and not necessarily that they aren’t sick.

The graph above shows the weekly (Sat-Fri) new case count since the start of the pandemic.

Vaccination

In total on Wednesday and Thursday, 6,288 doses of vaccine were either administered or newly inputed into the province’s database — 3,396 second doses and 2,892 first doses.

Nova Scotia has now officially reached 75% double dosed. By end of day yesterday, 80.7% of the entire population (including young children) have received at least 1 dose of vaccine, and 75.0% (well, 74.96% by my calculation) have received 2 doses

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.

Vaccination status of new cases, March 15 to September 29

There were 4,953 new cases of COVID-19. Of those:
• 187 (3.8%) were fully vaccinated
• 310 (6.3%) were partially vaccinated
• 4,456 (90.0%) were unvaccinated

There were 279 people hospitalized. Of those:
• 6 (2.2%) were fully vaccinated
• 29 (10.4%) were partially vaccinated
• 244 (87.5%) were unvaccinated

And 31 people died. Of those:
• 3 (9.7%) were fully vaccinated
• 3 (9.7%) were partially vaccinated
• 25 (80.6%) were unvaccinated

Vaccination status of new cases, September 24 to September 29

There were 186 new cases. Of those:
• 54 (29.0%) were fully vaccinated
• 13 (7.0%) were partially vaccinated
• 119 (64.0%) were unvaccinated

There were 8 people hospitalized. Of those:
• 0 (0%) were fully vaccinated
• 1 (12.5%) was partially vaccinated
• 7 (87.5%) were unvaccinated

And 2 people died. Of those:
• 1 (50%) was fully vaccinated
• 0 (0%) were partially vaccinated
• 1 (50%) was unvaccinated

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

By age cohort, the 77 new cases break down as:
• 17 are aged 11 and under
• 5 are aged 12-19
• 28 are aged 20-39
• 19 are aged 40-59
• 8 are aged 60-79

The active cases across the province are distributed as follows:

Central Zone
• 114 in the Halifax Peninsula/Chebucto Community Health Network
• 51 in the Dartmouth/Southeastern Community Health Network
• 18 in the Bedford/Sackville Community Health Network
• 0 in the Eastern Shore/Musquodoboit Community Health Network
• 3 in the West Hants Community Health Network
• 5 not assigned to a Community Health Network
Total: 191

Eastern Zone
• 9 in the Cape Breton Community Health Network
• 0 in the Inverness, Victoria & Richmond Community Health Network
• 3 in the Antigonish & Guysborough Community Health Network
Total: 12

Northern Zone
• 9 in the Colchester/East Hants Community Health Network
• 1 in the Pictou Community Health Network
• 7 in the Cumberland Community Health Network
Total: 17

Western Zone
• 12 in the Annapolis and Kings Community Health Network
• 8 in the Lunenburg & Queens Community Health Network
• 0 in the Yarmouth, Shelburne & Digby Community Health Network
Total: 0

Testing

Nova Scotia Health labs completed 4,678 PCR tests yesterday. This does not include the antigen tests administered at the 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:

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

Sunday
Halifax Convention Centre, noon-7pm
Fairview Legion, 11am-7pm

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 last night.

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; you can zoom in and click on the coronavirus icons to get information about each site.

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