12 New Hospital Admissions, Seven Discharges, One Death

Today, January 12, Nova Scotia is reporting 12 new hospital admissions and seven discharges.

Nova Scotia is also reporting one death related to COVID-19. A woman in her 60s in Western Zone has died.

“My heart goes out to another Nova Scotia family who’s lost a loved one to COVID-19,” said Premier Tim Houston. “This is another painful reminder that just because it’s a mild illness for you doesn’t mean it can’t cause severe illness or the death of someone in your circles. Each of us has a responsibility to protect our loved ones and our communities by following the public health rules.”

There are 60 people in hospital who were admitted due to COVID-19 and are receiving specialized care in a COVID-19 designated unit. That includes five people in ICU. The age range of those in hospital is 0-100 years old, and the average age is 66. Of the 60 people in hospital, 58 were admitted during the Omicron wave.

The average length of stay of those admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 is 5.8 days.

“Every death in this pandemic saddens me, and I offer my sincere sympathies to the family,” said Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer. “We all need to do our best to prevent the virus from reaching our most vulnerable. It’s also important to keep our healthcare workers healthy and out of isolation so that they can care for Nova Scotians with COVID-19 and other health needs.”

The vaccination status of those in hospital is:

• 5 (8.3 per cent) people have had a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine
• 36 (60 per cent) are fully vaccinated (two doses)
• 3 (5 per cent) are partially vaccinated
• 15 (25 per cent) are unvaccinated.
• 1 (1.7 per cent) person’s vaccination status is unknown at this time.

It is important to note that less than 10 per cent of Nova Scotians are unvaccinated.

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

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

Vaccine Coverage:

As of January 11, 1,887,927 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered. Of those, 90.3 per cent of Nova Scotians have received their first dose, and 83.0 per cent have received their second dose.

Cases and Testing:

On January 11, Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) labs completed 5,132 tests. An additional 837 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 are being reported.

There are 500 cases in Central Zone, 109 cases in Eastern Zone, 106 cases in Northern Zone and 122 cases in Western Zone.

As of today, there are an estimated 6,867 active cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia.

Quick Facts:

• a state of emergency was declared under the Emergency Management Act on March 22, 2020, and has been extended to January 23, 2022

Additional Resources:

Nova Scotians can find accurate, up-to-date information, handwashing posters and fact sheets at: https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus

Information on provincewide restrictions that took effect December 22 and other public health measures to help slow the spread of COVID-19 is available at: https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/restrictions-and-guidance/

More information on COVID-19 case data, testing and vaccines is available at: https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/data/

More information about public health text notifications of positive COVID-19 cases and close contacts is available here: https://www.nshealth.ca/news/public-health-notifying-positive-covid-19-cases-text-advising-notify-close-contacts

Government of Canada: https://canada.ca/coronavirus or 1-833-784-4397 (toll-free)