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 NS breakthrough infections
Maybe it’s 38 cases. Or 39.
Thanks to the province updating information at its COVID dashboard, we were able to update our map and table of COVID in the community health networks. Those tools are now up to date with Friday's numbers. And they reveal something particularly interesting about the 40 new cases the province announced in its written report, which is that the province's dashboard doesn't think there are 40 cases.
Per the written report (quoted below), the 40 cases break down as 21 in Central zone, 11 in Western and eight in Northern. But the case information broken down by Nova Scotia's community health networks—smaller regions than the four big health zones—only shows 19 cases in the networks that make up Central zone, for a total of 38 new cases. (The dashboard has no disagreement with the Western and Northern numbers.)
Our table reveals another interesting thing in today's numbers—a case disappearing from the Dartmouth community network. So it actually shows 39 new infections , minus one in Dartmouth, for a total of 38. But whether it's 38 or 39 cases, it's still not 40. As is standard for the province, there's no explanation for the discrepancy in the numbers, either in the written report or at the dashboard. But the written report includes its ever-present caveat that "Cumulative cases may change as data is updated in Panorama." (For those who don't follow this stuff quite as obsessively as others, Panorama is the database system the public health peeps use to track case and patient information.)
The bulk of the 38 or 39 cases the dashboard knows about are in three networks. In Central zone the Halifax network has 12 new infections, while the Western zone network of Yarmouth/Shelburne/Digby and Northern zone's Amherst/Cumberland network both have eight cases. Our map makes clear how glaringly COVID-free the eastern half of Nova Scotia is today.
40 new cases
Friday, November 5, 2021
Reopening status
Phase 87 (for Sid the Kid with ‘Vid)
New cases
40
New recoveries
31
New deaths
0
Active cases
220
Total cases in Nova Scotia during pandemic
7,550
Total COVID deaths
101
According to the NS written COVID report, there are "21 cases in Central Zone, 11 cases in Western Zone and eight cases in Northern Zone. Nova Scotia Health Authority’s (NSHA’s) public health team is investigating these new cases to understand the circumstances around the increased numbers." The province's data dashboard hasn't been updated yet, so our map and table below haven't been updated yet either, leaving us unable to help you understand more about where these cases are located.
Even though the map and table currently (around noon) still have yesterday's data, our vaccination rate chart, the graph of new and active cases and our chart of breakthrough infections have all been updated with the latest data from Friday.
Houstrang briefing at noon
Premier Tim Houston and chief medical officer of health Robert Strang are giving one of their occasional COVID-19 briefings today. It is scheduled to start at noon. You can watch live at novascotia.ca/stayinformed/webcast and/or @nsgov on Facebook, or catch it later at the Nova Scotia government's YouTube page.
The Coast's Lyndsay Armstrong is going to the briefing in person, and will report on what the premier and top doc say later today.
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 yesterday's COVID-19 news roundup, for November 4, 2021.
