The Nova Scotia Department of Health and Welfare says two cases of the XBB. 1. 5 variant of COVID-19, known as Kraken, have been reported in the province to date.
The new subvariant of Omicron is rapidly spreading and has been identified in 25 countries so far. In the U.S., it is projected to soon hit roughly 40 per cent of COVID-19 cases. In Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador has also identified a case.
“It doesn’t seem to be causing more hospitalizations and deaths, but it’s a big fear [because] it’s spreading. The vaccine is working,” infectious disease expert Dr. Lisa Barrett told CBC’s Information Morning Halifax on Thursday.
Immunologists have called the new variant “evasive immune. “Barrett says this means the virus is mutating around your immune system. While this may simply mean a more serious illness, Barrett says experts don’t yet know if that’s the case.
Barrett encourages those who feel in poor health to get tested for COVID-19.
“The biggest thing that worries me about these ever-evolving viruses is not that they’re unexpected, but that we’re probably no longer doing the best job of tracking them,” he said.
During the two-week holiday, Nova Scotia reported a total of 20 deaths in its first update of 2023.
One of those deaths occurred between Dec. 20 and Jan. 2. The remaining 19 deaths occurred in an unspecified time period. The province said those deaths may have come from any reference period, but would likely have occurred in the last few weeks or months.
Since March 2020, Nova Scotia has recorded 694 COVID-19 deaths.
The province reported 1,553 new cases detected through PCR testing over the past two weeks, for an average of 110 cases.
In a statement, the province reported that from Dec. 20 to Dec. 26, there were 687 PCR-confirmed cases, an average of 98 cases. From December 27 to January 3, there were 866 new cases confirmed by PCR, an average of 123.
On Thursday, Nova Scotia Health reported that another 246 people were hospitalized with COVID-19. This is an increase from the previous reporting period, when another 164 people were hospitalized with COVID-19.
Of those 246 people:
The IWK Health Center reported fewer hospitalizations on Thursday.
Nova Scotia Health said 94 painters were either out of work Thursday due to a COVID-19 diagnosis, awaiting screening results or had been exposed to a family member who tested positive.
The IWK reported Thursday that 56 workers were on sick leave due to COVID-19 or in isolation due to COVID-19.
Journalist
Anjuli Patil is a journalist and occasional video journalist on the virtual team at CBC Nova Scotia.
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