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
17 new cases, 74 active cases
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Reopening status
Phase 4
New cases
17
New recoveries
4
New deaths
0
Active cases
74
Total cases in Nova Scotia during pandemic
6,107
Total COVID deaths
94
Only four people recovered since yesterday's report, so the active caseload increased by 13 to 74 active cases. This is the highest it's been in Nova Scotia since the end of the province's third wave (check the chart of new and active cases below).
The 17 cases are spread unevenly across the province. "Ten of the cases are in Central Zone. Eight are close contacts of previously reported cases. One is related to travel. One is under investigation," says the daily Nova Scotia COVID report. "Five cases are in Northern Zone. All are close contacts of previously reported cases.
"One case is in Western Zone and is a close contact of a previously reported case. One case is in Eastern Zone and is related to travel."
Our map and table of COVID in the community health networks (based on the provincial data dashboard) shows that seven of the cases are in the Dartmouth network, four are in Truro/Colchester and Halifax has two. The Annapolis Valley, Amherst/Cumberland, Sydney/Glace Bay and an unknown Central zone community each have one new case.
For the second day in a row, there is a single COVID patient in hospital, and that person is not in the ICU. Yesterday's testing number—there were 3,364 tests completed by local labs—is above the average, which is currently around 2,800 daily tests.
And in vaccinations, clinics throughout the province jabbed 3,598 people yesterday, the most in a single day since the 3,740 jabs given on August 26. (Our vaccination-rate chart is below.) Fully 2,542 of those shots went to people getting their second dose—another high dating back to Aug 26—so the amount of Nova Scotia's population that is fully vaccinated with both shots rose by .26 percent, from 71.73 percent yesterday to 71.99 percent today.
That's a strong showing, Nova Scotia essentially reaching 72 percent fully vaxxed. But even if 2,542 people got jabbed every day leading to next Wednesday, the Phase 5 reopening target of September 15, the fully vaccinated population would only increase by 1.56 percent. (That's six days of vaccinations—today, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday—multiplied by .26 percent increase per day.) At 8am Wednesday, when Phase 5 is supposed to start, the province would be at 73.55 percent vaccinated, not 75 percent.
Top doc Robert Strang says there are between 8,000 and 9,000 fully vaccinated Nova Scotian military personnel who aren't counted in the province's public health tracking system; assuming the full 9,000 people, adding them in raises the vaccinated population by .92 percent. In the scenario where the good vaccine numbers being reported today continue through Tuesday, even including the military personnel we reach only 74.47 percent Wednesday at 8am. Yet Houstrang is confident the province will hit the 75 percent reopening target.
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 yesterday's COVID-19 news roundup, for September 8, 2021.
