HALIFAX -- After more than a month in the ICU, Kelly Marshall says her father is on the road to recovery.

"He was critically ill. He was on the ventilator," said Marshall. "He was still testing positive for the infection for 37 days. It was just a nightmare, ups, downs, roller-coaster ride."

Marshall's father, Rick Cameron, was one of the first people in Nova Scotia to be diagnosed with COVID-19. He is now considered COVID-free.

"They called to let us know, Mom and I just jumping with joy," said Marshall. "It was awesome. We called everybody. The nurses were crying, they were all happy."

Although Cameron is out of ICU, he is still in the hospital recovering.

"It's going to be a while before we get him home. They say it could take up to 6 months of recovery," said Marshall. She has been tracking her Dad's progress on a blog she started on Facebook called Rick Cameron: His road to recovery.

"It actually helped other people connect for families, that maybe they're going through the same thing. It was just nice to get support and to offer support for other families as well," said Marshall.

The Northwood long term care home in Halifax has been at the center of a devastating outbreak of COVID-19 for weeks. To date, 25 residents have died.

The Nova Scotia government says it's working with Northwood to protect the facilities residents.

"This virus has been a vicious one, and it's taking its toll on Northwood," said Premier Stephen McNeil on Friday afternoon. "I want to assure families that we have an emergency plan where we have brought together extra health staff, infectious disease experts, and extra cleaning staff."

Although Northwood has seen its share of sadness from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is also hope.

Fourteen days ago, Cathy Walker and Pat Stewart received a call that no family wants to hear that their 100-year-old mother had the virus.

"I hate to say it, but we were talking about how would we do things," said Walker. "You know right now, you can't have funerals, you can't, and we were very… I'm gonna say we were very negative because she is 100."

The sisters have nothing but kind things to say about the staff at Northwood who have been caring for their mother.   

"I do feel very comforted by the staff taking that extra minute. It didn't take a long time for them to fill us in every day on how she was, because I know they must be busy and I know they're short-staffed," said Pat Stewart.

After a stressful two weeks and lots of praying, Walker and Stewart found out Saturday that their mother, Kathleen Murphy, has now recovered from the virus.

"We're over the moon today," said Walker.

To date, Nova Scotia has 29,406 negative test results, 963 positive COVID-19 test results and 31 deaths.

Additionally, 609 people have now recovered, and their cases of COVID-19 are considered resolved.