Nova Scotia’s top doctor is providing an update on respiratory illnesses in the province Friday.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang will appear in a media availability at 11:30 a.m. The briefing will be livestreamed on this page.
According to the province, there will be no new policy announcements.
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Patients leaving overcrowded Nova Scotia ER without being seen: managers
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Patients leaving overcrowded Nova Scotia ER without being seen: managers
This comes after hospitals across the province have reported overcrowding or approaching overcrowding due to illnesses including influenza, RSV and COVID-19.
Capacity issues include the province’s largest children’s hospital, the IWK Health Centre, which reported six-hour long wait times in the emergency department last month.
Chief of the department said at the time 10 per cent of patients leave without ever being seen by a doctor.
Last week Global News reported that an email to staff of Dartmouth General Hospital said the pressure on the emergency room has risen to the point where there’s no space to assess patients and one in 10 people give up and leave.
Read more:
Average wait time at IWK children’s hospital 6 hours: senior N.S. health officials
COVID-19 and influenza cases
COVID-19 is still active in the province. In a recent update, Nova Scotia said it recorded another 515 positive PCR tests between Dec. 6 and 12.
On Tuesday, there were 34 people in hospital for COVID-19, including seven in ICU.
No new deaths were recorded last week, but another three deaths were added to the tally from the previous reporting period.
Read more:
Respiratory illnesses among N.S. children at ‘historic’ levels: Halifax doctor
Since Dec. 8, 2021, when the Omicron waves began, 561 Nova Scotians died from COVID-19. A total of 673 people died since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
More than 53 per cent of Nova Scotians received at least three doses of the vaccine, and 14.7 per cent haven’t received a single dose.
In a respiratory watch report for the period from Dec. 4 to Dec. 10, the province recorded 686 new cases of Influenza A.
During that week, 100 people were hospitalized, eight people were admitted to ICU and five people died from the flu.
Since the end of August this year, 25 Nova Scotians died after having a lab-confirmed case of influenza.
Public health also reported 176 new RSV cases from Dec. 4-10. There were also three cases of adenovirus, three cases of enterovirus or rhinovirus and one case of parainfluenza.
More to come.
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