N.S. reports 287 new COVID-19 cases, the highest number since start of pandemic
CBC
Nova Scotia announced 287 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the highest number reported in one day since the pandemic arrived in the province.
It is the seventh day in a row the province has announced more than 100 new infections.
The previous highest daily case count was 227 new infections on May 7.
Of the new cases, 191 are in the central zone, 57 are in the eastern zone, 24 are in the northern zone and 15 are in the western zone. Six people are in hospital with COVID-19, including two in intensive care.
Public Health has started notifying people who test positive by text message due to a backlog in contacting positive cases. About 85 per cent of positive cases are able to be notified this way, said a Health Department spokesperson. Text messages will advise positive cases to self-isolate, to notify their close contacts and register for Public Health's daily check-in service.
After sending a text message, Public Health then calls positive cases to assess if they are higher priority cases and pass along information about isolation. As of Wednesday afternoon, Public Health still needed to call 430 people to triage their cases.
On Wednesday, the province announced the last day of public school classes for the year will be Friday due to the impact of the rising number of COVID-19 cases on staffing levels and the number of students attending class. Students had been expected to remain in the classroom until Dec. 21.
The province added nine more school exposures on Thursday:
The province maintains a list of school exposures here.
Public Health announced on Wednesday that Hammonds Plains Consolidated in Hammonds Plains would move to at-home learning. The school has closed and will reopen with students returning to class Jan. 6.
On Monday, Nova Scotia announced it had identified 40 cases of Omicron — the latest COVID-19 variant of concern — all of which are related to the current outbreak at St. Francis Xavier University.
Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief medical officer of health, told CBC Radio's Information Morning earlier this week that Ontario is calling a men's university rugby tournament held in Kingston, Ont., at the end of November a "super-spreader event," and a team from Dalhousie attended the event. There could potentially be a link between the Kingston tournament and the St. FX outbreak.
Some parts of the country, including Ontario and P.E.I, have opened up booster shots for everyone 18 and up. On Thursday, Nova Scotia's Opposition Liberals called on the government to do the same.
But Premier Tim Houston said Nova Scotia has no plans to speed up plans to offer the booster by age groups. Currently, people aged 60 and up, front-line health-care workers and designated caregivers can book the shots.
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