Nova Scotia reports 129 new COVID-19 cases amid ongoing St. FX outbreak
CBC
Nova Scotia is reporting 129 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday amid an ongoing outbreak at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish.
There are 64 new cases in the central health zone, 52 in the eastern zone, 10 in the northern zone and three in the western zone, according to a news release from the Department of Health and Wellness.
The updated COVID-19 numbers were released Saturday afternoon, after the province said on Friday that it would not issue updates over the weekend.
"Because of the outbreak at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish the number of positive cases being released today are lab results, not Panorama results," the news release said. "This better reflects the situation on the ground."
As of Friday, there were 114 cases connected to the outbreak, which likely stemmed from the university's X-Ring ceremony and a number of sanctioned and unsanctioned events at the university.
A spokesperson with Public Health said the number of Saturday's new cases related to the outbreak is not yet available.
Public Health did say some of the cases reported Saturday are associated with the outbreak in the eastern zone, but are being counted in the central zone because of the home addresses on some students' health cards.
"As we are able to do the investigations, we're uncovering these and seeing that more and more — even though they're attributed to the central zone — they're actually a part of the St. FX cluster and may well live up there," Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health, said at a briefing Friday.
The release said most of the people infected in this outbreak are young and fully vaccinated so they are only experiencing mild symptoms.
Late Friday, the Antigonish, N.S., university cancelled all in-person exams after the province changed its COVID-19 isolation policy, which is expected to impact many students.
Due to the increase in cases and the high number of recent exposures, the province said all close contacts of positive cases must now isolate until they receive a negative PCR test, regardless of vaccination status.
Public Health has sent its mobile COVID-19 testing unit to Antigonish. It will be at the university's Keating Centre at 1100 Convocation Blvd. Saturday between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. AT and Sunday between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Nova Scotia Health labs completed 3,865 tests on Friday.
The authority said because of the spike in testing and positive cases, Public Health is experiencing some delays in followups.
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