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.
77 new cases and a new caseload high
Nova Scotia now has the largest active caseload it's experienced since the end of the third wave, with 240 active COVID cases. That's up from the previous fourth-wave high of 224 active cases, reached Wednesday. The increase from Wednesday is powered by the province reporting 77 new cases today and only 61 recoveries—numbers that cover two days because there was no report yesterday on the first-ever Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Along with the rising caseload comes an increase in the number of COVID patients in intensive care in Nova Scotia. The province is reporting that four people are in ICU, out of 11 total patients who are in hospital with the disease. (There were 12 COVID hospitalizations as of Wednesday, so while there are now fewer C19 patients in hospital, more of them are in ICU.)
Today's 77 new cases are broken down in the provincial report as 51 in Central zone, 13 in Western, seven Eastern and six Northern. Our map and table of COVID in Nova Scotia's community health networks, as quietly reported by the province a couple clicks deep at its data dashboard, show the Halifax network has 32 of the 77 cases, Dartmouth has 13, the South Shore network has eight and Sydney/Glace Bay has six. The other networks range from zero to five cases.
Testing over the last two days was pretty standard, at about 4,600 tests completed by local labs per day. But vaccinations had a big bump up, at 6,288 arms injected across Wednesday and Thursday. That's the most reported since Monday, August 9, for jabs delivered the preceding Friday, Saturday and Sunday. What could possibly account for such a spike? The provincial report offers no speculation, but we're thinking the province's Wednesday announcement of a mandatory vaccination policy deserves the credit for spurring a bunch of hesitant people into action.
Rounding out today's COVID report, the province says six public schools received exposure warnings since Wednesday. (Find them at the provincial database of school exposures.) The state of emergency has been extended for another two weeks, as it has every two weeks since it was first called in March 2020. And because it's Friday, the province reported its latest stats on breakthrough COVID: Our graph of weekly breakthrough infections is below, and in terms of the two COVID deaths Nova Scotia has endured since the last breakthrough report, one death was a fully vaccinated person, the other an unvaccinated person.
No national vaccination update
Canada is not reporting national statistics on vaccination uptake today, as it normally does on Fridays, so we can't update our animated racing charts (neither the chart of fully vaccinated nor at-least-one-dose vaxxed). By way of explanation, the stats site says "Please note that the October 1 report will be published on October 4, 2021." We are guessing the delay is due to the Truth and Reconciliation Day holiday yesterday. Watch for our updated vax trackers on Monday.
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.
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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.
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New and active cases visualized
Nova Scotia's third wave of COVID grew in April, 2021, peaked in May (227 new cases in one day was the maximum) and subsided in June. On July 17, the province reached five active cases—its lowest level in more than eight months—and an election was called. So when it came time to reset The Coast's chart comparing daily new cases with that day’s active caseload, in order to better reflect disease levels after the third wave, we started from July 17. Two months later, on September 14, the province formally announced the arrival of the fourth wave of COVID. The dark line tracks the rise and fall of new infections reported by the province; the green area is the province's caseload. Click or hover over any point on the graph and the detail for that moment will pop up. To focus on just new or active cases, 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. And you can click here for the version of this graph that includes the third wave and its May 10 crest of 1,655 active cases.
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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.
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Canadian cases in 2021
There was a point in July 2021, when the delta variant was causing an increase in COVID infections around the world, that Canada seemed safe from the fourth wave. By August, however, that point had passed, and case numbers around the country started to rise again. This graph charts the number of new infections every day in each province and territory, using the 7-day moving average to mitigate single-day anomalies (including a lack of weekend reporting in several jurisdictions including British Columbia and Nova Scotia). To focus on individual places, click the place names at the top of the chart to turn that data on or off.
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Breakthrough infections in Nova Scotia
On Fridays, the province's daily COVID report includes statistics about COVID breakthroughs—infections, hospitalizations and deaths among people who are fully or partially vaccinated. The province reports its numbers as a cumulative total: all the breakthrough cases dating from March 15, 2021 to the latest update. The Coast does an analysis to break the information about new cases down by each weekly reporting period, in order to offer our readers the following unique view of the same information, so you can better understand the fluctuations in breakthrough infections as they happen. Note: Our bar chart only dates back to June because the province didn't start this reporting until summer 2021.
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Click here for the previous COVID-19 news roundup, for September 29, 2021.