Nova Scotia reports 15 more deaths from COVID-19

Nova Scotia reported 15 new COVID-19 deaths Thursday, but the province says the deaths did not happen within the latest reporting week, which ran from Nov. 1 to Nov. 7.

The 15 deaths were listed in a new category on Nova Scotia's COVID-19 dashboard titled "New Deaths from Previous Reporting Period."

The new category was launched on the dashboard on Nov. 3. A spokesperson for the province said deaths reported in this category could be from any time in the past.

"Confirming cause of death for people takes time as there are a number of different circumstances to analyze. Therefore, deaths are subject to a lag in reporting. This has been the case throughout the pandemic," Khalehla Perrault told CBC News in an email.

The province noted no new COVID-19 deaths for the current reporting period. This marks the second consecutive week of no reported deaths. Since March 2020, the province has reported 617 deaths.

The province reported 671 new cases confirmed by PCR tests for that same time period — a daily average of 96. This is down from last week, when there were 792 PCR-confirmed cases.

Nova Scotia Health reported 264 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday. That is down from 303 the previous week.

Of those 264 people:

• 34 were in hospital for COVID-19 (including six people in ICU).
• 155 were in hospital for something else but have COVID-19.
• 75 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 109 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 25 employees off work due to COVID-19 on Thursday.