N.S. reports 1 COVID-19 death Friday; 99 people in designated hospital units

Nova Scotia reported one death and 99 patients in designated hospital units on Friday.

A man in his 70s in the central zone has died, according to a release from the province.

Those in hospital include 15people in intensive care.

"We have suffered significant loss of life in the last week," Premier Tim Houston said in a statement. "My sincere condolences to the 15 families who have lost loved ones."

Nova Scotia has recorded 158 deaths related to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

The province's health authorityhas reported some hospitalsare exceeding their patient capacity and have occasionally had no room for new admissions.

The system's overall capacity was at 104 per cent on Tuesday. The province said pressure from COVID-19 patients led to one emergency department closing on Monday.

The age range of those in hospital is between two and 95, with an average age of 66. The average amount of time people are spending in hospital is 7.9 days.

The vaccination status of those in hospital is:

• 25people have had a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
• 44are fully vaccinated (two doses).
• 1is partially vaccinated.
• 29are unvaccinated.

Currently, unvaccinated Nova Scotiansare about 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 than someone with two doses of vaccine. That is based on average hospitalizations since the province started releasing the daily hospitalization numbers by vaccine status on Jan. 4.

Nova Scotia labs completed 3,204tests on Thursday and an additional 594 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 havebeenreported.

There are 245 cases in central zone, 116 cases in eastern zone, 104 cases in northern zone and 129 cases in western zone.

The province estimates there are3,769 active cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia.

Limits increase for practices and rehearsals

Starting Monday, the province will ease restrictions on the number of people able to attendsports practices and arts and culture rehearsals.

Practices and rehearsals will be allowed to have up to 25 people indoors and 50 outdoors, However, gatherings of multiple groups, games and performances are still restricted. Also, no spectators will beallowed.

All other restrictions will remain in place until Feb.14.

Atlantic Canada case numbers

• Prince Edward Islandreported one death and 10peoplein hospital Friday, with onein ICU.
• New Brunswickreported one deathand162hospitalizations Friday, including 17inICU with ninepeople on ventilators.
• Newfoundland and Labradorreported 20 people in hospital on Friday, including eightin the ICU.