N.S. reports 5 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday, 92 people in designated hospital units
CBC
Nova Scotia is reporting five deaths and 92 people in designated COVID-19 hospital units on Tuesday, including 15 in intensive care.
The COVID-19-related deaths include a woman in her 70s in the central zone, three men in their 80s in the central zone and a woman in her 80s in the eastern zone.
In total, there are 304 people in hospital with COVID-19:
The average age of people in hospital is 68, the release said. Of the 92 people hospitalized for COVID-19, 89 were admitted during the Omicron wave.
Premier Tim Houston and Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health, are expected to provide an update on the COVID-19 situtation in the province Wednesday at 3 p.m. AT.
On Monday, Nova Scotia reported five people died due to COVID-19, one of the highest number of deaths on a single day since the start of the pandemic. There were six deaths reported on April 25, 2020, and another six deaths reported on May 3, 2020.
Currently, unvaccinated Nova Scotians are about four times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 than someone with two doses of vaccine. That is based on average hospitalizations since the province started releasing the daily hospitalization numbers by vaccine status on Jan. 4.
The vaccination status of those in hospital is:
Less than 10 per cent of Nova Scotians are unvaccinated.
The province is also reporting 492 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 Tuesday.
Of these, 234 are in the central health zone, 116 in the western zone, 62 in the eastern zone and 80 in the northern zone.
These cases were identified from 3,154 tests that were completed by Nova Scotia Health Authority labs Tuesday.
In an emailed statement on Tuesday, the IWK Health Centre in Halifax said staffing shortages may reduce some services.
The statement did not say how many staff are off, but said there have been about 100 staff out at any given time over the last few weeks who were either isolating with COVID-19 symptoms or awaiting test results because they were a close contact of someone who tested positive. It said patients may see "slight reductions for gynecology and breast health surgeries" as well as some outpatient services.