Nova Scotia reports 8 COVID-19 deaths in latest update

Nova Scotia reported eight COVID-19 deaths in a weekly update on Thursday, sixof whichare from previous reporting periods, meaning theymost likely occurred within the last weeks or months.

Since March 2020, there have been 796 deaths related to the virus.

The province also reported 264 new cases confirmed by PCR tests, a daily average of 38 cases. This is down from the previous reporting period,when there were 391 new cases confirmed by PCR tests.

Nova Scotia Healthreported 158people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday. This is a decrease from the previous reporting period when there were187 people in hospital with COVID-19.

Of those 158 people:

• 16 were in hospital for COVID-19 (including 5peoplein ICU).
• 93 were in hospital for something else but have COVID-19.
• 49 patients contracted COVID-19 after admission.

The IWKHealth Centre reported fewer than five hospitalizations on Thursday.

Nova Scotia Health said there were 82 employees off work Wednesday due tobeing diagnosed with COVID-19, awaiting test resultsor being exposed to a member of their household who tested positive.

The IWK reported 20 employees off work due to COVID-19 or isolation requirementson Thursday.