One COVID death and 11 new hospital admissions

Today, January 27, Nova Scotia is reporting 11 new hospital admissions and seven discharges.

Nova Scotia is also reporting one death related to COVID-19: a woman in her 70s in Central Zone.

“This is another difficult day for our province as another Nova Scotian is taken from us because of COVID,” said Premier Tim Houston. “I cannot stress enough the importance of getting vaccinated with the dose you need as soon as you are able. We must all do what we can to protect ourselves and others.”

There are 93 people in hospital who were admitted due to COVID-19 and are receiving specialized care in a COVID-19 designated unit.

That includes 15 people in ICU.

The age range of those in hospital is 6-100 years old. The average age is 67, and the average length of stay of people admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 is 7.5 days.

“It is never easy reporting a COVID death, as it is a stark reminder of the serious nature of this virus and the impact it has on people and their families,” said Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer of Health. “Our way forward continues to be following the public health measures and restrictions in place and getting vaccinated.”

Of the 93 people in hospital, 90 were admitted during the Omicron wave.

The vaccination status of those in hospital is:

• 19 (20.4 per cent) people have had a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine

• 55 (59.1 per cent) are fully vaccinated (two doses)

• 1 (1.1 per cent) is partially vaccinated

• 18 (19.4 per cent) are unvaccinated.

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:

• 107 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

• 127 people who contracted COVID-19 after being admitted to hospital.

Vaccine Coverage:

As of January 26, 2,079,773 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

Of those, 91 per cent of Nova Scotians have received their first dose, and 83.4 per cent have received their second dose.

As well, 50.4 per cent of Nova Scotians 18 and older have received a booster dose, and 7.4 per cent have booked a booster dose appointment.

Cases and Testing:

On January 26, Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) labs completed 3,318 tests.

An additional 366 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 are being reported.

There are 155 cases in Central Zone, 41 cases in Eastern Zone, 44 cases in Northern Zone and 126 cases in Western Zone.

As of today, there are an estimated 4,276 active cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia.