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
7 new cases after a day off
On Monday, the province did some sort of upgrade to the Panorama public health system. That meant on Tuesday there was no COVID case report. So here we are on Wednesday, getting a report of seven new cases like a slap in the face, because the last time we had anything above four new cases was three weeks ago.
Deep breaths, Nova Scotia. Deep breaths.
We'll find out tomorrow if today's seven cases marks the start of a virus surge. But for now, let's mentally average those cases out over the last two days—call it three cases that would have been reported Tuesday, four cases today—and consider ourselves still inside the recent range of infections.
To be sure, it is annoying that the province's caseload has crept back into double digits: there are currently 11 active COVID cases in Nova Scotia, up from seven active cases at last report. However, 11 isn't much compared to the 28 active cases reported just one week ago, on Wednesday July 14, the same day the province felt safe enough to move onto Phase 4 of reopening.
And today five of the province's community health networks have active cases (check our map and table below), where only two networks had cases Monday. That sucks.
But now nobody in Nova Scotia is in the hospital with the disease, a massive improvement from the two hospitalized COVID patients Monday. That alone makes Wednesday a good pandemic day on balance.
The seven new infections are a mixed bag, but are notably free of cases under investigation as potential community spread. "Six of the cases are in Central Zone," says the province in its report. "Three are close contacts of previously reported cases and three are related to travel. Two of the cases are connected to the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Halifax and were previously announced by the Canadian Armed Forces." The seventh case is in the Western zone's South Shore community network, and it's also travel-related.
The province's labs processed 5,765 tests over the last two days, right about the current daily average. And clinics across Nova Scotia injected nearly 30,000 doses of vaccine on Monday and Tuesday; over 27,000 of those jabs were for people getting their second dose, leaving fewer than 3,000 people getting their first dose. As of Tuesday's vaccinations, 74.9 percent of Nova Scotians are reported as having at least one dose, smack dab what The Coast predicted last week. (Whatever else the Panorama upgrade did, it definitely didn't incorporate the 8,000 vaccinated military members top public health doc Robert Strang talks about as pushing the province past the 75 percent target already.)
Even without those military personnel included, tomorrow Nova Scotia will pass the threshold of having 75 percent of the population vaccinated with at least one dose. Even if we get seven more new infections, getting unquestionably past that vaccine target makes Thursday a success already.
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.
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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.
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New and active cases visualized
This interactive graph charts COVID activity in Nova Scotia's third wave, comparing daily new cases with that day’s active caseload. The dark line tracks the rise and fall of new infections reported by the province, which hit a Nova Scotian pandemic record high of 227 cases in a single day on May 7. The green area is the province's caseload, which peaked May 10 at 1,655 active cases. Click or however over any point on the graph and the detail for that moment will pop up. To focus on just new or active cases, you can click the legend at the top left of the graph to hide or reveal that data set.
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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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Click here for yesterday's COVID-19 news roundup, for July 20, 2021.
