Nova Scotia reports 79 people in designated COVID-19 units Saturday

Nova Scotia reported 79 people in designated COVID-19 units on Saturday, including 14 in intensive care.

The age range for those in hospital is nine to 93 and the median age of those in hospital is 65. Of the 79 people in hospital, 73 were admitted during the Omicron wave.

On Friday, Nova Scotia reported its youngest COVID-19 death, a child between five and 11. 

Since the Omicron wave began on Dec. 8, 58 Nova Scotians have died because of COVID-19.

Nova Scotia's health authority did 2,222 tests on Friday and found 309 new cases of the virus. The central zone has 122 new cases, the eastern zone has 51, the northern zone has 50 and the western zone has 86.

As of Friday, there were an estimated 3,153 active cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia. 

About nine per cent of Nova Scotians are not vaccinated against COVID-19.

As of Friday, unvaccinated Nova Scotians are about 4½ times more likely to be hospitalized or die due to COVID-19 than someone with two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. That is based on average hospitalizations since the province started releasing daily hospitalization numbers by vaccine status on Jan. 4.

Unvaccinated people are also more than seven times as likely to die of COVID-19 than someone who had received a booster dose.

Nova Scotia: COVID-19 positivity rate

There are two other groups of people in hospital related to COVID-19:

• 133 people who were identified as positive upon arrival at hospital but were admitted for another medical reason, or were admitted for COVID-19 but no longer require specialized care.
• 147 people who contracted COVID-19 after being admitted to hospital.

Nova Scotia: Daily new COVID-19 cases

Atlantic Canada case numbers

• New Brunswick reported four deaths on Saturday. The province is reporting 303 new positive PCR tests and 122 people hospitalized, including 14 in intensive care. New Brunswick has 286 deaths during the pandemic.
• Newfoundland and Labrador reported 244 new cases and 24 hospitalizations Saturday. The province has 1,649 active cases.
• Prince Edward Island reported a death due to COVID-19 Saturday, the 14th for the province. There are eight people in hospital. There are 227 new cases.