Nova Scotia reports no deaths in latest COVID-19 update

Nova Scotia reported zero COVID-19 deaths in its weekly update on Thursday.

The last time that happened was April 13.

Since March 2020, there have been 841 deaths related to the virus.

The province also reported 196 new cases confirmed by PCR tests, with a daily average of 28. This is up from the previous week when there were 181 lab-confirmed cases.

Nova Scotia Health reported 90 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday. This is a decrease from the previous reporting period when there were 106 people in hospital with COVID-19.

Of those 90 people:

• 12 were in hospital for COVID-19 (including fewer than five people in ICU).
• 53 were in hospital for something else but have COVID-19.
• 25 patients contracted COVID-19 after admission.

Nova Scotia Health said there were 35 employees off work on Thursday due to being diagnosed with COVID-19, awaiting test results or being exposed to a member of their household who tested positive.

The IWK Health Centre said nine of its staff were off work because of COVID or isolating due to COVID. Hospitalizations at the IWK are below five.

March 2023 epidemiologic summary

In its epidemiologic summary for March, the province noted 1,268 positive PCR tests, 69 hospitalizations and 13 deaths from COVID-19.

Positive test results, hospitalizations and deaths all decreased from February, the summary noted.

Twelve of the 13 deaths in March were people aged 70 or older and five were people who were living in long-term care homes.