Nova Scotia’s weekly COVID-19 update shows a rise in cases at long-term and residential care facilities, as well as a continued climb in hospitalizations.
But, it reports the “lowest” risk of severe illness during the Omicron wave.
In its weekly update on Thursday, the province said there were 4,188 positive PCR tests performed at the lab and 53 new hospital admissions due to COVID-19 in the week ending March 30.
Ten deaths were reported during this period.
During that time, there were also 16 hospital discharges. That brings the the total number of people in hospital for COVID-19 to 51 people — with a median age of 68.
“We have more community transmission and people are getting infected with the virus, but the proportion of hospitalizations and deaths among those has remained low — the direct result of vaccination,” said Dr. Robert Strang, chief medical officer of health, in a news release
“None of this is unexpected, but it is concerning — and an important reminder that the pandemic is not over, and we need to do what we can to slow the spread.”
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But the spread of COVID-19 is having an impact on the health system.
As of today, 786 health workers are off the job because they either have tested positive for COVID-19, are awaiting test results or were exposed to a member of their household who tested positive.
The province also says moving forward, the epidemiologic summary prepared for Strang and his team to inform Nova Scotia’s response to the pandemic will be released to the public.
The highlights of this week’s summary indicate the number of PCR positive results have continued to increase over the past three weeks and about half of those tests were “confirmatory tests” on people who had received a positive rapid test.
The summary also said deaths have been decreasing in the past three weeks, and that the percentage of cases that have been hospitalized in this wave are lower than previous waves. This wave, for example, has a 1.5 per cent hospitalization rate, while the first wave — which was before vaccines were available — had a 5.3 per cent rate.
Deaths during this wave have also been lower: 0.3 per cent compared to 5.9 per cent in the first wave.
“For Wave 5, the case fatality rate (% who died) among long-term care residents (2.4%) has been substantially lower compared to all other waves, particularly the first wave (21.7%),” the summary noted.
The median age of deaths reported since the start of the Omicron wave on Dec. 8, 2021 is 79, and 26.6 per cent of people were unvaccinated or had one dose of vaccine.
The latest statistics show 87.4 per cent of Nova Scotians have had two or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, 4.9 per cent had one dose, and 7.7 per cent are unvaccinated.
The province lifted most COVID-19 restrictions on March 21, although it has kept masks mandatory in public schools for now.
This week, experts have said that Canada is heading towards a potential sixth COVID-19 wave this spring.
— With a file from The Canadian Press
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