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 cases  Cases in kids  Table of community health networks  New and active cases  Vaccination rate  Breakthrough infections  Canada’s fourth wave
50something new cases
Nova Scotia is reporting more than 50 new COVID infections today. But exactly how many more depends on which provincial information source you’re using.
At the NS data dashboard, comparing case totals from yesterday to today on the maps reveals 51 new cases—those are the numbers used in The Coast’s map and table of infections, below. One case in the Western health authority zone, three in Northern zone, 20 in Eastern and 27 in Central.
In its written report, however, Nova Scotia says there are 52 cases. That’s two in Western, three in Northern (the only zone that agrees with the dashboard), 18 in Eastern and 29 for Central. Per standard operating procedure, the only indication or explanation of the anomaly in the written report is the boilerplate sentence explaining that the public health tracking system is a dynamic tool: “Cumulative cases may change as data is updated in Panorama.”
As we’ve said many times, we believe the difference between 51 and 52 cases isn’t ultimately a big deal, and we think the province eventually catches up with the numbers, which isn’t always easy because things are fast-changing with this stupid disease. But we realize that we are reporting conflicting numbers to you, so for the sake of transparency and peace of mind, we want to let you know that we know there’s a discrepancy today, you know?
Anyway, the real meat of today’s provincial COVID news is the ongoing outbreak at St. FX. The Coast is currently working on story about the situation that we’ll publish later today.
And in a last word about numbers and stats, the province did helpfully add a note to the written report explaining that “technical issues” around vaccination information mean that “immunization data is not included in today’s release or on the COVID-19 data dashboard. Immunization data will be updated Friday, December 10.” So our vaccination rate chart hasn’t been updated either.
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 purple line tracks the rise and fall of daily new infections reported by the province; the green area is the province's caseload. In mid-November, The Coast added a golden line to show the 7-day moving average of daily new cases, effectively a smoothed-out version of the purple line that puts the ups and downs into bigger context. Click or hover over any point on the graph and the detail for that moment will pop up. To focus on just some information, 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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Infections in Nova Scotian children 11 and younger
On December 1, 2021, two things happened that change the pandemic for Nova Scotians aged 11 and younger: the province started vaccinations for kids from five to 11 years old, and it imposed a travel ban to stop children under 12 from leaving Nova Scotia to participate in sporting events or arts performances. So at The Coast we were inspired us to graph infections in this population, dating back to October 4 when the provincial COVID data dashboard first started reporting infection information specifically for the 0-to-11 age group. While the number of infections in kids ages five to 11 was high enough around the end of November to necessitate the travel ban, vaccinations should bring the infection rate down by early 2022.
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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 December 8, 2021.
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COVID cases and news for Nova Scotia on Friday, Dec 10
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This article appears in Dec 9-29, 2021.