There have been three more COVID-19 related deaths at Northwood long-term care home in Halifax, bringing the total to forty-one, thirty-five of those at Northwood.
Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, says eleven licensed long-term care homes and unlicensed seniors’ facilities in Nova Scotia have had cases of COVID-19.
“Of the total of 245 residents, forty-six of those have recovered and 35, unfortunately, have died. The remainder are still in the recovery process and being cared for within their facilities. Of the 113 staff who have contracted COVID-19, sixty-one can be considered recovered.”
He says the rest are still within the waiting time frame.
All of the active cases in long-term care facilities are at Northwood, except one staff member at each of two other homes.
Dr. Strang says the number of people in the hospital has dropped again, which is encouraging.
“We have six individuals in hospital, two of those in the ICU, and they’re included in the 652 Nova Scotians who have been infected with COVID-19 but can now be considered to be recovered. We’ve have 30,984 Nova Scotians who have tested and received a negative result.”
The six-hundred and fifty-two individuals Nova Scotians considered recovered is just under two thirds of all cases in the province, where the QEII Health Sciences Centre’s microbiology lab completed 454 tests yesterday, identifying six more positive cases.
Premier Stephen MacNeil, meanwhile, says they are now looking at when the province can open up a bit more but everything depends on public health numbers.
“There has been ongoing work, withinside of government through different committees of the chamber, through the Department of business, but our epidemiology will determine when we go forward. The conversations we’ll be doing will be just that, here’s the public health protocols you have to follow, start preparing your business to be ready when Public Health deems it possible for us to open up the economy.”
The Premier says the government is working with all sectors of the economy to see how they can help.
