There's not much reason to celebrate when the province announces 75 new cases, the second-most infections it's had in one day. And when the active caseload reaches a new pandemic provincial high of 489 cases, beating the mark of 466 set during the first wave in April 2020. And when two of the new cases are workers in long-term care facilities, including Northwood. And when this morning at 8am the new, stricter, province-wide lockdown came into effect, dovetailing Halifax's sixth day of lockdown into Nova Scotia's first.
But there are a couple positive glimmers. Today's 75 cases is down from the 96 reported yesterday, the first time in over a week that the number of daily new cases has dropped from one day to the next. And nobody new has gone into the hospital or ICU since yesterday; there remain 11 patients hospitalized across the province, with three of those in intensive care.
Yeah, the good bits don't outweigh the negatives.
In neutral news, there were just over 10,000 doses of vaccine administered yesterday according to today's provincial report, which is fine but not great compared to the nearly 15,000 delivered a week ago. And due to some technical issue, there's no information on the number of COVID-19 tests that Nova Scotia labs completed yesterday. Five people have recovered from the disease, which is more than yesterday's report, but fewer than the day before.
Here's the case information coming verbatim from the province, including details on the long-term care staff who tested positive. Our table localizing today's cases is below.
Sixty-seven cases are in Central Zone, one case is in Western Zone, and one case is in Northern Zone.
Six cases are in Eastern Zone, one of which was identified Tuesday, April 27, at Strait Area Education Recreation Centre in Port Hawkesbury.
One of the cases in Central Zone is a staff member at Northwood’s Halifax Campus, a nursing home in Halifax. As a precaution, residents are being isolated and cared for in their rooms. All residents, staff and designated care providers are being tested. Most residents have been fully vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Another case in Central Zone is a staff member at Quest Regional Rehabilitation Centre in Lower Sackville. As a precaution, residents are being isolated and cared for in their rooms. All residents and staff are being tested. Most residents have been fully vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Where Nova Scotia’s COVID-19 cases are on Wednesday, April 28
| HEALTH ZONE & NETWORK | NEW CASES | CLOSED CASES | ACTIVE CASES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western zone totals | 1 new | 0 closed | 15 active |
| Yarmouth | - | - | 4 |
| Lunenburg | 1 | - | 4 |
| Wolfville | - | - | 7 |
| Central zone totals | 67 new | 4 closed | 419 active |
| West Hants | - | - | 3 |
| Halifax | 22 | - | 141 |
| Dartmouth | 34 | 2 | 196 |
| Bedford | 7 | 1 | 30 |
| Eastern Shore | -1 | - | 9 |
| Northern zone totals | 1 new | 0 closed | 14 active |
| Truro | 1 | - | 7 |
| Amherst | - | - | - |
| Pictou | - | - | 7 |
| Eastern zone totals | 6 new | 1 closed | 41 active |
| Antigonish | - | - | 1 |
| Inverness | 1 | - | 2 |
| Sydney | 5 | 1 | 38 |
TABLE NOTES The totals for the health zones (Northern, Eastern, Western, Central) may be different than the totals you'd get by adding up the numbers in the Community Health Networks that make up each zone. The zone totals reflect every case in the area, while the community network numbers only show cases that can be localized with the patient's postal code to a region inside the bigger area. Because case information may be updated by the province after cases are announced, two things that lead to different totals are common: 1. the province never gets the information to track some case(s) at the community network level, usually leading to a higher number of cases in the zone total than the sum of the networks, and 2. a case may appear in the network day(s) after it was announced when a case that didn't have a postal code receives one, usually leading to a lower number of cases in the zone total than the sum of the networks. The names of the community networks here have been adapted/shortened for simplicity (click to download the province's PDF map with the exhaustively complete network names). All data comes from the Nova Scotia COVID-19 data page. We use a dash (-) instead of a zero (0) where applicable in the health network numbers to make the table easier to read.