Nova Scotia reports 2 COVID-19 related deaths Friday

Nova Scotia reported two deaths related to COVID-19 on Friday.

A man and woman from the eastern zone were both in their80s.

The province reported 44 people in designatedCOVID-19 hospital units on Friday, including 11in intensive care.

The age range of those in hospital is 0 to 96, with a median age of 67, according to a news release. The average length of stay in the hospital is 6.5 days.

The vaccination status of those in hospital is:

• 15 people have had a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
• 19 are fully vaccinated (two doses).
• 1ispartially vaccinated.
• 9 are unvaccinated.

Only about 7.9 per cent of Nova Scotians remain unvaccinated.

Premier Tim Houston said Wednesday that "if everything stays on course," all restrictions, including mask mandates, will be lifted byMarch 21.Houston said "COVID zero" is not a reality right now. He said "living with COVID" has to be our new reality.

No plan to allow unvaccinated health-care workers to return to work

On Thursday, Nova Scotia's health authoritysaid there is no plan to allow health-care workers who refused vaccination to return to work when the province drops its vaccine passport requirement.

In early December, the province placed more than 1,000 public sector workers who refused to adhere to the province's mandatory vaccination policy on leave. That included 323 Nova Scotia Health staff.

Unvaccinated Nova Scotiansare about 5times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 than someone with two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. That is based on average hospitalizations since the province started releasing daily hospitalization numbers by vaccine status on Jan. 4.

Unvaccinated people are about 4 times as likely to die of COVID-19 during the Omicron wavethan someone who had received a booster dose, based on numbers provided by the province and last updated on Feb. 17.

On Thursday,health authoritylabs completed 1,861 tests and an additional 170 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 are being reported. There are 64 new cases in central zone, 42in eastern zone, 25in northern zone and 39 in western zone.

As of Friday, there are an estimated 1,888active cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia.

As of Thursday, 92.1 per cent of Nova Scotians have received at least one dose of vaccine and 86.6per cent have received their second dose.