COVID-19: N.S. announces 18 new cases, signs of community spread in Central Zone

Nova Scotia reported 18 new cases of COVID-19 and 29 new recoveries on Friday.

In a release, the province said 12 of the new cases are in the Central Zone. Ten are close contacts of previously reported cases and two are under investigation.

“There are signs of community spread among those in Central Zone aged 20 to 40 who are unvaccinated and participating in social activities,” the release said.

Five of the cases are in the Northern Zone. Four are close contacts of previously reported cases and one is related to travel.

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The province said there is a “large cluster of linked cases in a defined, unvaccinated group in Northern Zone and more cases are expected.”

The last case is in the Western Zone and is related to travel.

Nova Scotia now has 162 active cases, of which six are in hospital. Nova Scotia Health labs completed 3,849 tests on Thursday.

The province is also renewing its state of emergency. The new order will take effect on Sept. 19 and will extend to noon on Oct. 3, unless it’s terminated or extended.

Vaccine update

According to the provincial COVID-19 dashboard, 79.2 per cent of Nova Scotians have received one or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and 73.2 are fully vaccinated.

The province released updated vaccine statistics on Friday. Of the 4,609 COVID-19 cases reported between March 15 and Sept. 16, 91.9 per cent were unvaccinated. Six per cent were partially vaccinated and 2.1 per cent were fully vaccinated.

Of the 260 people hospitalized in that time period, 88.1 per cent were unvaccinated, 10.8 per cent were partially vaccinated and 1.1 per cent were fully vaccinated.

And of the 28 people that died, 24 were unvaccinated, three were partially vaccinated and one was fully vaccinated.