Nova Scotia reports 8 COVID-19 deaths in latest update

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

There were three new deaths forlatest reporting period of Jan. 24to Jan. 30.

Since March 2020, there have been 726 deaths related to the virus.

The province also reported 680 new cases confirmed by PCR tests, a daily average of 97 cases. This is down slightlyfrom the previous reporting period,when there were 687 new cases confirmed by PCR tests.

Nova Scotia Healthreported 208 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday. This is a decrease from the previous reporting period when there were242 people in hospital with COVID-19.

Of those 208 people:

• 32 were in hospital for COVID-19 (including 3peoplein ICU).
• 100 were in hospital for something else but have COVID-19.
• 76 patients contracted COVID-19 after admission.

The IWKHealth Centre reported fewer than five hospitalizations on Thursday.

Nova Scotia Health said there were 141 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 45 employees off work due to COVID-19 or isolation requirementson Thursday.