Nova Scotia reports 25 COVID-19 deaths in latest update

Nova Scotia reported 25 COVID-19 deaths in a weekly update on Thursday, 24 of which are from previous reporting periods, meaning they most likely occurred within the last weeks or months.

There was one death for the latest reporting period of  Feb. 7 to Feb. Feb. 13.

Since March 2020, there have been 778 deaths related to the virus.

The province also reported 357 new cases confirmed by PCR tests, a daily average of 51 cases. This is down from the previous reporting period, when there were 649 new cases confirmed by PCR tests.

Nova Scotia Health reported 198 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday. This is a decrease from the previous reporting period when there were 238 people in hospital with COVID-19.

Of those 198 people:

• 24 were in hospital for COVID-19 (including 4 people in ICU).
• 96 were in hospital for something else but have COVID-19.
• 78 patients contracted COVID-19 after admission.

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

Nova Scotia Health said there were 109 employees off work Wednesday 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 28 employees off work due to COVID-19 or isolation requirements on Thursday.

More deaths, hospitalizations in January

In the province's COVID-19 epidemiological summary for January, it noted the number of positive PCR tests, hospitalizations and deaths increased from December.

Of the 27 deaths reported in January, 26 were people 70 or older and 11 were people living in long-term care facilities.

The summary noted Nova Scotians 70 and older were 26 times more likely to have been hospitalized compared to people 18 to 49. Nova Scotians 70 and older are also 28 times more likely to die from COVID-19 compared to people who are between 50 and 69.

Unvaccinated Nova Scotians or those who have not completed their primary series of shots were hospitalized and died at two times the rate of those who received a booster within 168 days.