The death of a woman in her 70s that occurred several weeks ago has been officially attributed to COVID-19, bringing Nova Scotia's total death toll from the disease to 62.
Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief medical officer of health, announced the death during their teleconference update on COVID-19. They also announced that one new case was confirmed in the latest round of testing.
“This death was a woman in her 70s with underlying medical conditions … from Central Zone,” Strang said. “She actually passed away a number of weeks ago. Her death had been under investigation since then to determine if it was actually COVID related or not and we've now got the information to make the conclusion that this was actually related to COVID-19.”
The new case is a close contact of a known case, Strang said, which gives public health officials assurance of knowing where the person was most likely exposed.
Strang said for COVID-19 to be identified as the cause of anyone's death, it has to be certified as such by a physician.
“The vast majority of ones are very clear: somebody's had a COVID infection – has severe disease – and it's very clear what the cause of death is,” he said. “But this isn't the first time – we've had a handful of cases – where we've had indefinite discussion with the clinicians, there may or not be an autopsy involved, and we work together with Public Health, with one of the medical officers, the clinicians and, if necessary, one of the medical examiners to really have an in-depth conversation about what actually was the cause of death. Because somebody could have a COVID infection that wasn't severe and die of a completely different cause.
“So, where necessary, where there's some questions about that, we make sure there are some clinical people work together and come to a common diagnosis on the cause of death.”
McNeil, as he does with every announced death, offered condolences to the family.
“Losing someone at any time is tough enough, but losing someone with the restrictions that we have imposed in our province – and really across the country – is making it even that much more difficult,” the premier said. “We can't have the opportunity to mourn the way we normally would, or quite frankly, friends can't have an opportunity to come and provide support and care to the living, and that's an important part of that.
“But I want you to know that you are in our thoughts and all Nova Scotia is with you.”
Cautious approach
The woman was not a resident of a long-term care home. Most of the province's deaths have affected the Northwood facility in Halifax, with 53 people succumbing.
Northwood currently has only one resident with an active case.
Strang cautioned that although there has been a period with “low to no” cases found, people should not read too much into results over a short period of time.
“We know we have to watch the epidemiology for a minimum of two weeks to understand any one situation. And we have to continue into June or even into the summer as we reopen things.”
But he did encourage people to go out and enjoy the outdoors and restaurants and businesses that have opened with appropriate public safety measures in place.
McNeil said it appears the first weekend of Nova Scotia's cautious approach to reopening the economy has gone well.
“Everyone is following protocol, staying safe and being respectful,” he said.
Nova Scotia now has 1,060 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The QEII Health Sciences Centre's microbiology lab completed 578 Nova Scotia tests on Monday.
Nova Scotians can find accurate, up-to-date information, handwashing posters and fact sheets at https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus.
Businesses and other organizations can find information to help them safely reopen at https://novascotia.ca/reopening-nova-scotia/.
