Nova Scotia's reported COVID-19 deaths surpasses 700

Nova Scotia's reported COVID-19 deaths have surpassed 700.

On Thursday, the province released data that shows there have been 701 deaths in the province since March 2020.

The province reported a total of seven deaths on Thursday, all of which are from previous reporting periods, meaning they most likely occurred within the last weeks or months. There were no new deaths for latest reporting period of Jan. 3 to Jan. 10.

The province also reported 1,038 new cases confirmed by PCR tests, a daily average of 148 cases. This is up from the last two reporting periods.

Nova Scotia Health reported 283 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday. This is an increase from the previous reporting period when there were 246 people in hospital with COVID-19.

Of those 283 people:

• 31 were in hospital for COVID-19 (including five people in ICU).
• 118 were in hospital for something else but have COVID-19.
• 134 patients contracted COVID-19 after admission.

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

Nova Scotia Health said there were 177 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 70 employees off work due to COVID-19 or isolation requirements on Thursday.