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
New cases up, active cases down
The province is reporting nine new COVID infections today, the most in a single report since the third wave of infections ended in Nova Scotia in July. That reporting high isn't quite as scary as it sounds, however, because today is Monday, and the province recently stopped announcing C19 statistics on the weekends, so that's nine new cases diagnosed across Friday, Saturday and Sunday—a not-too-scary average of three cases per day.
The province says the nine cases are split across the Central health zone, with five, and Eastern and Northern, each with two. Eight are connected to travel or prior cases, while one in Central is under investigation for possible community spread. Our map and table of the community health networks identifies three new cases in Bedford/Sackville, two in Sydney/Glace Bay, and one each in Halifax, Dartmouth, Truro/Colchester and Amherst/Cumberland. Bedford/Sackville and Halifax are tied for the community network with the most active cases, at five apiece.
Today's provincial update includes 10 people recovering from COVID to go with the nine new cases since Friday's report, causing the active caseload to drop for the first time since August 6. The province says there are currently 24 active COVID cases in Nova Scotia.
This is odd, as there were 26 active cases on Friday, then nine new cases and 10 recoveries today for a net of one recovery, so the number should have dropped to 25, not 24. (That's 26 + 9 - 10 = 25 ≠ 24.) Odd but precedented. There have been a lot of these small inconsistencies over the 17 months of Nova Scotia's pandemic, and when we ask the province what's going on, the answer is consistently: "Shit changes all the time with the numbers in the public health database, and we don't explain every little update, so deal with it." (We're paraphrasing. "Cumulative cases may change as data is updated in Panorama" is a verbatim example of the ass-covering boilerplate language from today's provincial report.)
Anyway, active cases are down, and that's a fantastic change from the recent days of increases, as shown on our chart of active cases.
Hospitalizations remain unchanged since the end of July. There is one Nova Scotian in the hospital due to COVID, and they are in intensive care. Testing numbers were steady but unspectacular all weekend. Yesterday there were 2,193 tests, compared to the currently average of about 2,700 tests per day.
And vaccinations, which didn't get reported on Friday, continue the recent trend of slowing way down. Clinics province-wide jabbed 6,122 arms Thursday through Sunday, an average of 1,530 injections per day, the lowest daily average since April 4. Typical of late, most of those vaccines went to people getting their second dose; as our vaccination rate chart shows, vax uptake is now at 76.99 percent of the population having at least one dose. Nova Scotia has been stuck at 76-point-something percent for 18 long days, after only eight days at 75-ish percent. It will be a relief to pass into the 77 percent realm tomorrow, but be prepared—we're going to be there for a while.
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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Click here for the previous COVID-19 news roundup, for Friday, August 13, 2021.
