There has been a fourth COVID-19-related death in Nova Scotia.
Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s chief medical officer of health, says a woman in her 80s, died in Cape Breton.
There were twenty-seven new cases yesterday, the lowest number of new cases reported this week*.
“Which brings us to a total of confirmed cases in Nova Scotia to 606. Currently, we have eleven individuals in hospital, five of those are in the ICU. We have 177 people now who can be considered to be recovered from their COVID-19 infection.”
There have also been 19,506 negative test results in Nova Scotia.
The QEII Health Sciences Centre’s microbiology lab has been working twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week since expanding their capacity.
Dr. Strang says they completed 966 tests yesterday.
“We’re second in the country, just behind Alberta, in terms of per capita testing. All the evidence says that aggressive wide testing is the key component of getting ahead of this disease, that testing is combined with strong public health measures as well as aggressive and timely follow-up of cases and their close contacts by Public Health.”
The lowest number of tests processed this week was 885 and the highest was 1476**.
Meanwhile, Premier Stephen MacNeil had a meeting with the Prime Minister Thursday night, covering numerous topics.
He says they need to know how the rent deferral and wage top-ups will fit in Nova Scotia among others.
“We are focused on how do we support those who have no income, who’s families have been falling through the cracks and how can we best support them and how can we best ensure that we have an economy and businesses that will be able to start up when we find our way through this pandemic.”
He says they will not re-open the economy and loosen restrictions until Public Health says it is safe to do so.
*New cases: M-29, T-43, W-32, Th-30, F-27
**Tested: M-980, T-1476, W-885, Th-1065, F-966
