1 new death, 14 deaths from previous reporting periods announced in N.S. COVID-19 weekly update

Nova Scotia has reported one new COVID-19 death within the latest reporting week from Nov. 22 to Nov. 28.

But the province also recorded 14 more deaths from a previous, unspecified time period, according to information released Thursday.

Those deaths were listed in a new category added to Nova Scotia's COVID-19 dashboard on Nov. 3.

The province said deaths reported in this category could be from any past reporting period, but most likely to be within weeks or months of being reported.

Since March 2020, Nova Scotia has reported 657 COVID-19 deaths.

The province reported 544 new cases confirmed by PCR tests for that same time period — a daily average of about 78. This is up from last week, when there were 515 PCR-confirmed cases.

Nova Scotia Health reported 249 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday. That is up from 223 the previous week.

Of those 249 people:

• 38 were in hospital for COVID-19 (including six people in ICU).
• 135 were in hospital for something else but have COVID-19.
• 76 patients contracted COVID-19 after admission.

The IWK Health Centre reported fewer than five hospitalizations on Thursday.

Health-care staff off work 

Nova Scotia Health said there were 129 employees off work 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 reported 23 employees off work due to COVID-19 on Thursday.