3 deaths from previous reporting periods announced in N.S. COVID-19 weekly update

Nova Scotia has reported no new COVID-19 deaths within the latest reporting week from Dec. 6 to Dec. 12.

The province recorded three more deaths from a previous, unspecified time period, according to information released Thursday. Those deaths are 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 the last weeks or months.

Since March 2020, Nova Scotia has recorded 673 COVID-19 deaths.

The province reported 515 new cases confirmed by PCR tests in the latest time period — a daily average of about 74. This is up slightly from last week, when there were 509 PCR-confirmed cases.

Nova Scotia Health reported 185 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday. That is down slightly from 187 the previous week.

Of those 185 people:

• 29 were in hospital for COVID-19 (including five people in ICU).
• 122 were in hospital for something else but have COVID-19.
• 34 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 166 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.

This is up from 120 from the previous reporting period.

The IWK reported 40 employees off work due to COVID-19 or isolating because of COVID-19 on Thursday. This is down from 51 from the previous reporting period.

24 COVID-19 deaths in November

Nova Scotia reported 2,571 PCR positive results, 158 hospitalizations and 24 deaths from COVID-19 in its epidemiologic summary for the month of November, which was also released Thursday.

The summary noted the number of deaths and hospitalizations decreased from October to November.

Of the 24 deaths, 96 per cent were people who were 70 or older and 25 per cent were people residing in a long-term care facility.

Age and lack of vaccination are still associated with "severe outcomes," the summary noted.

It said Nova Scotians 70 and older have been hospitalized at 18.5 times the rate of people 18 to 49 and their rate of death is 261 times higher compared to people under 50.

Unvaccinated Nova Scotians were hospitalized and died at almost three times the rate of those with three or more doses, the summary noted.

Wasted vaccinations

The province reported between April 2021 and September 2022, nearly 2.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were sent to Nova Scotia, but during that same time around 124,000 were not used.

Some of those doses are now considered wasted; the rest are in storage.

The province says some of the waste is due to strict handling requirements for the vaccine. Multi-dose vials have to be used within 24 hours after opening.