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
New Brunswick gambles again
Last month New Brunswick rushed to reopen borders faster than its Atlantic Canadian neighbours were comfortable with. Today it’s done it again, completely dropping all COVID restrictions—masking, gathering, distancing, travelling—while Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador are still just easing back their rules.
In June the gamble worked out alright for New Brunswick, as the worst-case scenario of massive COVID outbreaks didn’t happen. The east coast will be nervously watching to see if NB can be so lucky this time around, when way below 75 percent of its population is fully vaccinated and the delta variant is spreading fast.
1 case, 1 patient in the ICU
Friday, July 30, 2021
Reopening status
Phase 4
New cases
1
New recoveries
2
New deaths
0
Active cases
9
Days in a row with cases
2
Total cases in Nova Scotia during pandemic
5,887
Total COVID deaths
93
In its last daily COVID report until next Tuesday, the province describes a mixed bag of disease activity. There’s one new case, but two recoveries. The active caseload is back to single digits, but someone has gone into hospital with severe COVID symptoms. We’re on the cusp of the August long weekend, but this plague hasn’t fully gone on vacation.
Nova Scotia’s Friday update says the single new infection is in the Central health authority zone. The Coast’s reading of provincial data says the person who caught the disease is a man between the ages of 20 and 39, inclusive. This is the same age and gender as yesterday’s one new Nova Scotian case, but where that man lives in the Halifax community health network, today’s guy lives in Dartmouth. (As we always say, scroll down and you’ll find our table and map of COVID in the community health networks.)
Two people who had COVID recovered from it since yesterday’s report, both of them living in the Halifax community health network. (The map! The table!) Having one more recovery than infection pushes the active caseload down by one, to nine active cases. Like we talked about yesterday, the relief of dropping below double digits is bigger than the one-case difference between 10 and nine, and it would be a perfect place to end this report as we head into the Emancipation Day/Natal Day holiday weekend.
Unfortunately the day’s COVID news doesn’t let us stop here, because after 10 days with no reported C19 patients in hospital, today Nova Scotia is reporting one hospitalization. Making it even worse, this person is so sick that they are in the intensive care unit. And as much as the relief of falling from 10 to nine active cases is larger than a single case, the disappointment of going from zero to one hospitalization is even bigger. We’re sure the entire province joins us in sending this person good wishes for a speedy recovery.
Finally, the province’s reported testing and vaccination numbers stick to today’s good news-bad news theme. Local labs processed 2,964 tests yesterday, well above the current average of about 2,500 daily tests and the highest one-day total since last Thursday. In vaccinations, clinics delivered 12,441 doses yesterday across the province, a typical number for the week. But only 1,192 of them went to people who were getting their first dose, which is a distinctly below-average amount.
If there’s a bright side to that low number, the proportion of the population with at least one jab rose from 75.89 percent yesterday to 76.02 percent today, a minuscule increase that feel more significant because it means Nova Scotia moves from the neighbourhood of its 75 percent-vaxxed target to getting into the 76 percent world. Meanwhile the fully vaccinated population jumped by more than a percentage point since yesterday, from 61.33 to 62.48 percent. Our chart of the NS vaccination rollout is, as always, below.
Have a good holiday weekend
If you don't have to work this long holiday weekend, which features Emancipation Day Sunday and Natal Day Monday, we hope you get to relax. And if you are working, we hope your customers are so relaxed that they're chill and easy to deal with.
COVID has gotten chill enough (pandemic segue alert!) that last week the province started taking weekends off; there aren't going to be case reports on Saturdays or Sundays for the foreseeable future. So between the holiday and the lack of new information, we're also taking the weekend off. Later today after the province's Friday C19 report comes out, we'll do an update on the numbers (it will appear above when it's ready) and add the latest info to the map and charts below. But we won't be doing one of these daily Coast reports Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
Happy holidays, Halifax.
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. Note: On July 23, 2021, Nova Scotia announced that it will no longer update case numbers on weekends.
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. Note: Effective July 23, 2021, the province no longer updates case numbers on weekends.
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. Note: As of July 23, 2021, the province stopped updating case numbers on weekends.
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 29, 2021.