NOTE: This day is now over. Click for the latest on COVID-19 from The Coast. Or for an informative look back at Nova Scotia's evolving pandemic response, keep on reading.
Map of NS community health networks Table of community networks New and active cases Vaccination rate
Zero day number 2
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Reopening status
Phase 4
New cases
0
New recoveries
6
New deaths
0
Active cases
22
Days in a row without cases
2
Total cases in Nova Scotia during pandemic
5,870
Total COVID deaths
92
Not only are there no new infections, but six people recovered from the disease since yesterday, pushing the provincial caseload down to 22 active cases. That's the lowest it's been since March 23, a month before the Halifax lockdown started. It's great to be back at this sort of level.
We're getting no cases even though testing numbers are strong. The province's daily COVID report says 3,357 PCR tests were completed in local labs yesterday, comparing well to the current average of about 2,900 tests per day.
Hospitalizations haven't changed from yesterday, with two patients sick enough to be in hospital due to COVID, and one of them so sick that they're in ICU.
In vaccinations, the province is reporting that 21,226 arms got jabs yesterday. Almost 20,000 of those shots went to people who were getting their second dose. There were 1,416 unvaccinated people who got a first dose, the most in a day so far this week, increasing the province's percentage of the population with at least one dose to 74.29 percent—call it 74.3 percent like the Nova Scotia COVID data dashboard does—from the 74.15 percent reported yesterday.
This isn't the 75 percent target that was a prerequisite for moving from Phase 3 of reopening to Phase 4, but as we discussed yesterday when Phase 4 started, there are apparently 8,000 vaccinated members of the Armed Forces in the province who haven't yet been added to the public health system. Considering them, as public health head Robert Strang does, the 75 percent target has (just barely) been reached. Our graph of Nova Scotia's reported vaccination rate is below; right now nearly half the province has been fully vaccinated with both doses.
“Our case numbers are encouraging and our active cases are steadily declining,” says Strang in today's report. “But we cannot become complacent. The COVID-19 variants spread more easily and much quicker. Our greatest line of defence is to ensure that everyone gets fully vaccinated with two doses of vaccine.”
Finally, for the answer to the question above, about when the last two days in a row without cases happened, that pair of zero days was Thursday, March 11 and Friday, March 12, more than four months ago. The only other pair in 2021 came Friday, February 5 and Saturday, February 6. And before that, we need to go all the way back to before last Halloween: Wednesday, October 28 and Thursday, October 29, 2020.
Map of cases in community health networks
This infographic was created by The Coast using daily case data from Nova Scotia's official COVID-19 dashboard. Our goal is for this to be the best NS COVID map around, clearer and more informative than the province or any other media organization provides. To get there we do an analysis of the data to find each day's new and resolved case numbers in the 14 community health networks, information the province does not provide. For a different but still highly accessible approach to the latest COVID statistics, check out our case table.
jump back to the top
Case table of the health networks
The Coast uses data logged from Nova Scotia's official COVID-19 dashboard in order to provide this tabulated breakdown. The province reports the number of active cases in each of Nova Scotia's 14 community health networks, but we do the math to be able to report the new and resolved case numbers. We also map the data to provide a different view of the case information.
jump back to the top
New and active cases visualized
This interactive graph charts COVID activity in Nova Scotia's third wave, comparing daily new cases with that day’s active caseload. The dark line tracks the rise and fall of new infections reported by the province, which hit a Nova Scotian pandemic record high of 227 cases in a single day on May 7. The green area is the province's caseload, which peaked May 10 at 1,655 active cases. Click or however over any point on the graph and the detail for that moment will pop up. To focus on just new or active cases, you can click the legend at the top left of the graph to hide or reveal that data set.
jump back to the top
Vaccination in the population
How many Nova Scotians already have one dose of vaccine? How many are fully vaccinated with two doses? And how close are we to the herd immunity goal of 75 percent of the province fully vaxxed? These questions are answered in our chart of the vaccination rate in Nova Scotia since the province started reporting these numbers in January 2021, breaking out people who've had a single dose separate from those who've had the full complement of two doses. (Here's more information about the 75 percent target and what it will take to get there.) Note: The province doesn't update vaccination numbers on weekends.
jump back to the top
Click here for yesterday's COVID-19 news roundup, for July 14, 2021.