9 new COVID cases for Nova Scotia on Wednesday, Aug 18

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.

5 new cases in Halifax, 4 in Dartmouth

Yesterday on election day, COVID-19 went nearly silent, delivering just one new case as we Nova Scotians voted for our new government. Today, with premier-elect Tim Houston's Progressive Conservative Party basking in its majority win, COVID is back with nine new infections. Is this some kind of political analysis from the disease pointing out that it's hard to go wrong campaigning on health care in Nova Scotia, or a reminder that the blasted virus couldn't care less about the affairs of humans? Yes!

Nine new cases in one day is the most the province has had during this post-third wave period dating back a month ago to when the election was called. There were also nine cases announced on Monday, but that was for testing done Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Today's nine cases are all coming since yesterday's reporting.

"The new cases are in Central Zone. Six are related to travel," says the province's official case report for Wednesday. "Two are close contacts of previously reported cases. One is under investigation."

As shown in The Coast's ever-popular map and table below, our analysis of provincial data finds that five of the cases are in the Halifax community health network, and the other four are in Dartmouth. COVID may be trying to tell us something about the urban-rural split running through NS politics.

Six people with COVID recovered since yesterday, so the active caseload went up by (nine new cases minus six recoveries equals) three, to 25 active cases in Nova Scotia. There's no change in hospitalizations, with one person in hospital/in intensive care due to their infection.

Both testing and vaccinations are up since yesterday's report. Local labs processed 3,710 tests on Tuesday, more than double the day before, well above the current average of 2,730 tests per day. Clinics across the province jabbed 2,974 arms Tuesday, almost double the weak showing from the day before, and higher than the current daily average of about 2,300 injections. Now 77.11 percent of Nova Scotia's population is reported as having at least one dose, and 68.49 percent of Nova Scotians are fully vaccinated with two doses, numbers that are barely increased from the day before as our chart of vaccination rates reveals.

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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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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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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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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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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Click here for yesterday's COVID-19 news roundup, for August 17, 2021.