Nova Scotians question government decision to limit public COVID-19 data
CBC
As the Nova Scotia government moves toward what politicians and public health officials are calling "living with COVID," some are questioning the timing of the decision to reduce the amount of COVID-19 data that's publicly released.
The Health Department released its first weekly COVID-19 statistics on Thursday after nearly two years of mostly releasing daily information.
Unlike the daily reports, the weekly report was missing information about:
Some say the information is not enough for them to judge the risks of certain activities as they go about their daily lives.
"I was immediately concerned about that," said Dan Parks, 70, who lives in Colby Village, N.S. "There's not enough information there for anybody in Nova Scotia to make a risk assessment."
Parks said he uses the positivity rate — the number of positive PCR COVID-19 tests divided by the total number of PCR tests conducted — to assess his risk. But that figure is now missing.
Parks would also like to see the return of reporting information by zone so he has a better idea of the amount of coronavirus around him.
"I don't understand why they won't provide that information," he said. "It's got to be simple. They have the stats."
CBC News asked the Health Department why certain figures were no longer being reported.
In an email, spokesperson Marla MacInnis said, "We are still refining our process and you should expect to see this report evolve over time."
Asked why the total number of PCR tests administered is no longer being reported, MacInnis said since the Omicron wave began, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang has cautioned against using the number of positive tests to gauge virus level.
"With confirmatory PCR testing back online, it is closer — but not everyone infected with COVID is symptomatic and not all those with symptoms go for a PCR test," MacInnis said.
She said the number of people in intensive care is no longer being reported because "if someone has been hospitalized due to COVID-19, regardless of the unit, they are very sick. Hospitalization is an indicator of severe disease."
CBC also asked why the weekly report noted a downward trend in hospitalizations when the number jumped from 45 to 50 between March 4 and March 11, the respective dates of the last daily report and the first weekly report.
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