Anti-vaccine protests shut down
Friday, May 14, 2021
New cases
117
New recoveries
151
New deaths
1
Active cases
1,572
Days in a row with cases
46
Total cases in Nova Scotia during pandemic
4,534
Total COVID deaths
72
Halifax’s lockdown
22 days
Nova Scotia’s lockdown
17 days
The province successfully applied to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia for an injunction to stop anti-vax and/or anti-mask protests. Apparently some people had been organizing a rally for Saturday—a rally doubtless intended to bring together more than a single household of idiots, who would crowd together without masks, chanting slogans demanding that chief public health doctor Robert Strang stop trying to protect the public's health.
The injunction prevents that rally and any others that would violate Strang's orders for the province. "It also prohibits organizers from continuing to promote the rallies on social media and authorizes police to ensure compliance with the Health Protection Act," says the provincial announcement about the court ruling.
“Nova Scotia is in a state of emergency. People have lost their lives. Our collective responsibility is to keep everyone safe,” says premier Iain Rankin in the announcement. “All Nova Scotians must respect the public health orders and directives. This is particularly important as the province and our health-care employees work around the clock to care for people in this third wave of the pandemic.”Vaccinations open to people ages 35 to 39
The vax rollout continues rolling, opening today to the latest, youngest age group of Nova Scotians, those between the ages of 35 and 39. Now everyone in the province who's 35+ is eligible for vaccines, and with AstraZeneca use on pause since Wednesday, that means the shot will be either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, both of which use mRNA technology. In its announcement, the province says this 35-to-39 age bracket is around 63,000 people. Click here to book a vaccine appointment online.
The emergency continues
On Sunday, March 22, 2020, the province first declared a state of emergency because of COVID. That SOE was scheduled to last two weeks, unless removed early or renewed to extend longer. In the 14 months since, we've only experienced renewals, and another one happened today. It officially takes effect Sunday and lasts for another two weeks, lengthening that first SOE's term from March 22, 2020 to May 30, 2021. Unless it's removed or extended.
Hospitalizations on Friday
The numbers of COVID patients in hospital are down slightly from yesterday, but they're still higher than they were earlier in the week when the province implemented the emergency measure of moving ICU patients out of the Central zone in order to free up beds for an expected influx of critical COVID patients. There are 89 patients in hospital across the province today, with 21 of those in ICU. This chart tracks hospitalizations from the start of 2021 through the current disastrous rise.
More infections inside the healthcare system
Following yesterday's eight cases in a non-COVID unit at the Halifax Infirmary, today the province is announcing a ninth patient infected at the Infirmary. "The other patients in the non-COVID unit have tested negative and are being closely monitored," the province says. "As a precaution, Nova Scotia Health Authority is testing staff and doctors who have worked in the unit."
Another case among the 117 announced today (see below) is a resident at the Harbour View Haven nursing home in the Western zone town of Lunenburg. "Staff and residents from the affected unit are being tested," says the province. "At the direction of public health and as an added precaution, some residents are being isolated and cared for in their rooms. Most residents have been fully vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine."
The province's case report doesn't say if the infected Harbour View resident has had one, two or no doses of vaccine.
Active cases fall but one person dies
In Friday's COVID-19 report, the province is announcing that a man in his 80s in the Central zone died from COVID. Nova Scotia has now had 72 disease deaths. Seven of those people died in 2021.
That same report does have some positive news, however. The province is reporting 117 new COVID cases (97 of them in Central zone, nine in Eastern, seven Western and the remaining four Northern), but 151 infected people recovering since yesterday, so active cases are down for the second day in a row, to 1,541 active cases today.
To find out where today's new cases are located across the 14 community health networks in Nova Scotia, across down to our chart and/or map.
COVID in the community health networks
Our table logs data from Nova Scotia's official COVID-19 dashboard in order to provide this information. The province reports the number of active cases in each of the 14 community health networks, but The Coast does the math to be able to report the new and resolved case numbers.Mapping COVID in the community health networks
Click here for yesterday's COVID-19 news roundup, for May 13, 2021.
