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 Canada’s fourth wave
Nova Scotia passes 70% fully vaccinated 🏆
Thursday, August 26, 2021
Reopening status
Phase 4
New cases
1
New recoveries
1
New deaths
0
Active cases
50
Total cases in Nova Scotia during pandemic
5,990
Total COVID deaths
94
But today is a reprieve, a moment for the humans to roar back at the disease (to borrow a phrase coined by that top doc). We have two reasons for this.
First, Nova Scotia officially passed 70 percent of the entire population fully vaccinated with two doses. Clinics across the province injected vaccine into 4,582 arms yesterday—an above-average number—and with 3,800 of those jabs going to people getting their second dose, the percentage of all Nova Scotians who've received the full complement of vax hit 70.25 (and that doesn't count the 8,000+ invisible vaxxed among us).
The second bit of good COVID news is the province's case report. There's just one new case today, and it's balanced by one person recovering from their infection, so the caseload holds steady today at 50 active cases. This comes after a relentless string of rising cases that dates back to provincial election day, Tuesday, August 17—which already feels an eternity ago. (Our chart of new and active cases shows no increase from last Friday to Monday, but that's only because the province was having technical issues and didn't report active cases Monday.)
"The case is in Central Zone and is under investigation," says the province. The fact it's not easily connected to travel or another case is a signal the new infection might be an example of community spread, but we are definitely not going to let that rain on the parade today.
Coast analysis of provincial data finds the new patient is a male in the 40-59 age group. Our map and table of infections in the community health networks cannot place him more specifically in a community inside Central zone, which means the province doesn't have his postal code. He is one of the two cases listed on the table as "Community not yet known" in the table; the other was identified in recent data as living in Halifax, but today the province rescinded that location. That's why Halifax is showing negative one case, and Community not yet known has two new cases even through the province only diagnosed one new infection today.
Finally, the provincial report says no COVID patients are in hospital in Nova Scotia, and local labs processed 3,739 tests yesterday. That's the most tests since Thursday, Aug 12, two full weeks ago, and well above the current average of about 3,000 daily tests. Let's call this testing performance a third reason to celebrate today—we can use it.
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. 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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