The Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness says forty-six new COVID-19 cases have been identified, bringing the total of confirmed cases to 721.
Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s chief medical officer of health, says the QEII Health Sciences Centre’s microbiology lab completed 874 tests Sunday.
“We currently have 12 individuals in hospital, four of those in the ICU, 248 people have now recovered, and their infection can be considered resolved. We have tested Nova Scotians that have negative results for 21,769 people.”
Dr. Strang says the spread is actually slowing down in most of the province, and the high numbers we’re seeing now are from areas where people are brought together to live.
“Whether it’s long-term care facilities, residential care facilities, homeless shelters, those are the areas where we’re seeing more and more are becoming the focus of COVID-19 transmission as we get a handle on it more in the broader community. So that is going to present a number of challenges moving forward, as we open things up.”
He says the opening up also puts some of these group living areas at greater risk.
Most of the COVID-19 activity in Nova Scotia is, as expected, in the HRM area but Dr. Strang says the other zones still have cases, although to a lesser degree.
“In Western, Northern, and Eastern Health Zones, we have sporadic disease activity, with localized cases, a few clusters going on, but we don’t have any indication of any substantive community spread. Within Central Zone, which incorporates HRM and West Hants, we have more community spread, certainly in the HRM area.”
COVID-19 cases are most notably found in Dartmouth East and facilities where people are brought together to live.
