COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Nova Scotia

It has been beyond busy at the primary health care mobile clinic set up in Halifax's north end.

Since January the clinic has seen a steady rush of people coming in.

While the clinic provides primary care, this is one of the many sites that people come to, to seek COVID-19 testing.

“We definitely see a fair number of people pick up these test kits and wherever possible, we post both public health and mobile primary care signs to encourage people to think about it,” said Tara Sampalli, senior director of global health system planning with Nova Scotia Health.

This week, Nova Scotia released data showing the number of COVID-19 deaths has surpassed 700.

According to David Kelvin, a microbiologist and immunologist with Dalhousie University, the previous two weeks are consistent with what the province has been seeing.

“It’s mostly elderly hospitalizations so that means ages 74 and older, and the deaths are in the ages of 80 and over,” said Kelvin.

Since last week, Nove Scotia has reported that 1,038 people have tested positive for COVID-19; that's up from previous weeks. While it is difficult to tell if the rise in cases can be linked to large gatherings like the World Junior ice hockey Tournament, which saw nearly 11,000 people cram in for the finals at the Scotiabank Centre.

In the crowds, there were very few masking and according to experts, the increase of positive cases can come from attending events like this.

“I don’t think there were many masks that were worn by people who were attending the actual facilities so it’s not surprising there would be infections,” said Kelvin.

According to Kelvin, while restrictions aren’t necessary at this point, he said it’s important that people take individual steps in preventing the spread and adds that more lab work is required to determine if these recent positive cases are in fact the new variant.

Starting next week, Nova Scotia Health’s COVID-19 vaccine outreach clinics will begin offering the Pfizer bivalent vaccine.