Nova Scotia will meet minimum first dose target - HalifaxToday.ca

The province will meet its minimum COVID-19 vaccine first dose target.

"As of today, 75 per cent of all Nova Scotians have either received their first dose or are booked to get it," announced Dr. Robert Strang at a Wednesday briefing. 

"And hundreds of people are still getting their first doses every day, which is really encouraging to me. Yesterday 1,400 people did just that. These are numbers we need to see continue."

In addition, Nova Scotia will soon be getting an extra percentage point officially added to its vaccination rate courtesy of the military.

Over 8,000 fully vaccinated Nova Scotia residents who are military members will be added to our total.

Strang explained the Canadian Armed Forces ran its own vaccination program and that information is in the process of being transferred into the provincial system.

"Those are Nova Scotians, it's just that they had a separate Armed Forces led vaccine program ... and we're now at the point we can incorporate their data," he stated. "That's good news because they're part of our population and they need to be accommodated when we look at our total population numbers."

"We're almost ready to do that, but knowing what the numbers are, we can reliably say we are now at that minimum 75 per cent target."

The chief medical officer of health stressed that this is just a milestone, not the finish line.

"We can't stop yet," he said. "Seventy-five per cent of the entire population with at least one dose is our minimum."

"The more people who are fully vaccinated, the better protected we all are from COVID and its variants, especially the Delta variant."

Strang offered up the United States as an example of how the more infectious variant is affecting those who aren't vaccinated.

"There is increased spread of the Delta variant in relatively unvaccinated parts of that country, and there is a clear link now between lower COVID vaccination rates and more COVID deaths by state," he explained.

"As the Mississippi State health officer said, it is the unvaccinated people who are being diagnosed, who are going to hospital and who are dying."

Haligonians who haven't yet had their first dose can head to the Halifax Convention Centre Clinic and get it without an appointment. Those who are 55+ can also walk-in and get their second dose.

Nova Scotians who received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on or before July 6 will receive an email to schedule their second dose in the coming days. 

The province has reported one new COVID-19 case Wednesday and six recoveries.

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Nova Scotia will meet minimum first dose target - HalifaxToday.ca
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