UPDATE March 13: The Saturday, March 13 case report includes the remarkable news that the new case announced Friday doesn’t count as a Nova Scotian case, because the patient had previously gotten a C19 diagnosis in another province. We’ve updated the map and headline associated with this piece, which used to be “1 case in the Antigonish health network March 12.” For the latest case numbers and the province’s weak explanation about the traveller who didn’t mention their COVID-19 status, check our Saturday update at The Coast’s C19 news feed.
After the zero day yesterday, today the virus is back, with Nova Scotia reporting one new COVID-19 case in the Eastern health zone.
A single case isn’t much, especially when three people recovered from the disease, leaving the humans ahead for the day and the province with 17 active cases, down from 31 active cases just last Friday. However, this case can’t easily be connected to travel or someone else’s case, so there’s a possibility it’s community transmission. The case is, as the province always says in these situations, “currently under investigation.”
Our chart at the bottom of this story, which details where the new, closed and active cases are in the province, reveals the new case is in the Antigonish & Guysborough Community Health Network. (That’s the official Nova Scotia Health Authority name; we simply call it Antigonish.) The Antigonish network hasn’t had a case for at least 52 days, dating back to January 20 when the province first started reporting C19 numbers by Nova Scotia’s 14 community health networks instead of just the four big health zones.
In much more positive news of a longstanding nature, for the first time in 39 days the province says that nobody with C19 is in the ICU. One patient is still in the hospital, but they are not in intensive care. It was January 30 that somebody went into the ICU, and we’ve wondered and worried about it being the same person this whole time. The province won’t say, because privacy, which isn’t at all helpful. But now it doesn’t matter so much, because the ICU is empty. What a relief!
With case numbers relative low, the push from Strankin for everyone get tested is clearly feeling less urgent. The province’s report says 2,681 lab tests were completed yesterday. That’s below the seven-day average of over 3,000 daily tests, and less than half the nearly 5,600 tests reported last Friday.
Today’s vaccine number—46,891 doses given—works out to 1,742 vaccines administered yesterday, down considerably from the record of nearly 2,600 jabs the day before. Thousands more people ages 80 and higher become eligible for the vaccine on Monday, and for 63- and 64-year-olds booking starts Tuesday for the AstraZeneca vaccine. Read our story to find out how to sign up for your vaccination when your turn arrives.
Where Nova Scotia’s COVID-19 cases are on Friday, March 12
| HEALTH ZONE & NETWORK | NEW CASES | CLOSED CASES | ACTIVE CASES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western zone totals | 0 new | 0 closed | 4 active |
| Yarmouth | – | – | – |
| Lunenburg | – | – | – |
| Wolfville | – | – | 4 |
| Central zone totals | 0 new | 1 closed | 11 active |
| West Hants | – | – | – |
| Halifax | – | 1 | 2 |
| Dartmouth | – | – | 1 |
| Bedford | – | – | 7 |
| Eastern Shore | – | – | – |
| Northern zone totals | 0 new | 2 closed | 1 active |
| Truro | – | 1 | – |
| Amherst | – | 1 | 1 |
| Pictou | – | – | – |
| Eastern zone totals | 1 new | 0 closed | 1 active |
| Antigonish | 1 | – | 1 |
| Inverness | – | – | – |
| Sydney | – | – | – |
TABLE NOTES The totals for the health zones (Northern, Eastern, Western, Central) may be different than the totals you’d get by adding up the numbers in the Community Health Networks that make up each zone, because the province doesn’t track all cases at the community network level. The zone totals reflect every case in the area; the community network numbers only show cases that can be localized to a region inside the bigger area. The names of the community networks here have been adapted/shortened for simplicity (click to download the province’s PDF map with the exhaustively complete network names). All data comes from the Nova Scotia COVID-19 data page. We use a dash (-) instead of a zero (0) where applicable in the health network numbers to make the table easier to read.
This article appears in Mar 1-31, 2021.
