Nova Scotia reports 7 COVID-19 deaths in latest update

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

Since March 2020, there have been 807deaths related to the virus.

The province also reported 272 new cases confirmed by PCR tests, a daily average of 39 cases. This is up from the previous reporting period,when there were 238new cases confirmed by PCR tests.

Nova Scotia Healthreported 138 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday. This is a decrease from the previous reporting period when there were162 people in hospital with COVID-19.

Of those 138people:

• 13 were in hospital for COVID-19 (including four peoplein ICU).
• 71 were in hospital for something else but have COVID-19.
• 54 patients contracted COVID-19 after admission.

The IWKHealth Centre reported fewer than five hospitalizations on Thursday.

Nova Scotia Health said there were 73 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 16employees off work due to COVID-19 or isolation requirementson Thursday.

Nova Scotia saw a decrease in positive COVID-19 PCR test results, deaths and hospitalizations in Februarycompared to January,according to the province'sepidemiologicsummary for the monthreleased Wednesday.