16 New Hospital Admissions, Three Discharges, State of Emergency Renewed

Today, January 21, Nova Scotia is reporting 16 new hospital admissions and three discharges.

There are 94 people in hospital who were admitted due to COVID-19 and are receiving specialized care in a COVID-19 designated unit. That includes 13 people in ICU. The age range of those in hospital is 0-100 years old. The average age is 68 and the average length of stay of people admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 is 6.9 days.

Of the 94 people in hospital, 89 were admitted during the Omicron wave.

The vaccination status of those in hospital is:

• 11 (11.7 per cent) people have had a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine
• 60 (63.8 per cent) are fully vaccinated (two doses)
• 4 (4.3 per cent) are partially vaccinated
• 19 (20.2 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:

• 73 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
• 113 people who contracted COVID-19 after being admitted to hospital.

Vaccine Coverage:

Immunization information will not be available today due to technical issues. It will be updated on Monday, January 24.

Cases and Testing:

On January 20, Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) labs completed 3,975 tests. An additional 601 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 are being reported.

There are 269 cases in Central Zone, 120 cases in Eastern Zone, 49 cases in Northern Zone and 163 cases in Western Zone.

As of today, there are an estimated 5,241 active cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia.

Hospital Outbreaks:

The NSHA is reporting additional cases related to the outbreaks in two hospitals:

• one additional patient in a ward at Cape Breton Regional Hospital; fewer than 10 patients have tested positive
• one additional patient in a ward at the Victoria General site of the QEII Health Sciences Centre; fewer than 10 patients have tested positive.

The Province is renewing the state of emergency to protect the health and safety of Nova Scotians and ensure safety measures and other important actions can continue. The order will take effect at noon, Sunday, January 23, and extend to noon, Sunday, February 6, unless the government terminates or extends it.

Quick Facts:

• a state of emergency was declared under the Emergency Management Act on March 22, 2020, and has been extended to February 6, 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)