Nova Scotia reported one additional death linked to COVID-19 on Friday and 10 more hospital admissions.
The death involved a man in his 60s in the western zone.
“It’s never easy to learn that another Nova Scotian lost their life because of this virus,” Premier Tim Houston said in a news release.
There have been six discharges from COVID-19 units in hospitals and 88 patients remain. There are 15 people in intensive care with the virus.
“This has been a difficult week for our province,” Houston said in the release.
“As we head into the weekend, please let this be a sad reminder to slow down your activities, minimize your contacts and follow the public health measures in place.”
The province says the average length of stay of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 is now 7.6 days.
As stated in the release, the vaccination status of those in hospital is:
- 18 (20.5 per cent) people have had a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine
- 52 (59.1 per cent) are fully vaccinated (two doses)
- one (1.1 per cent) is partially vaccinated
- 17 (19.3 per cent) are unvaccinated
The province notes that less than 10 per cent of Nova Scotians are unvaccinated.
There are an additional 234 patients across the province linked to COVID-19. Of those, 104 tested positive upon arrival but were admitted for another medical reason, or they were admitted for COVID-19 but no longer require specialized care, said the release. Another 130 people contracted the virus after admission to hospital.
Of the 3,670 PCR tests completed by Nova Scotia Health labs in the past day, 620 were reported to be positive.
This includes 319 new cases in the central zone, 97 in the eastern zone, 98 in the northern zone and 106 cases in the western zone.
The province estimates there are 4,316 active cases of COVID-19.
There is a new outbreak at a ward at the Halifax Infirmary, where fewer than five patients tested positive to date.
As stated in the release, there are also new cases linked to the other hospital outbreaks:
- two additional patients in a ward at the Victoria General site of the QEII Health Sciences Centre; fewer than 10 patients have tested positive
- one additional patient in a separate ward at the Halifax Infirmary site of the QEII Health Sciences Centre; fewer than five patients have tested positive
- one additional patient in a ward at the Dartmouth General Hospital; fewer than 10 patients have tested positive
The province also reported a new outbreak at long-term care facility Victoria Manor in Amherst. Seven staff members and 21 residents have tested positive.
Nova Scotia’s vaccination campaign saw a total of 2,094,109 doses administered to date. Around 83.5 per cent of Nova Scotians are fully vaccinated with two doses, while 52.1 per cent of those eligible have received a booster dose.