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Nova Scotia inching closer to vaccination target with 73.1 per cent now fully vaccinated; drop-in clinics continue

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HALIFAX -

No appointments were necessary at a drop-in vaccine clinic Thursday at the IWK Health Centre.

Brian MacMullin was one of the Nova Scotians who got his second dose of vaccine at that location.

"I think the more people that do get the vaccine will help us a lot and we've done really well in Nova Scotia," said MacMullin.

Last week, the IWK vaccine clinic administered 300 shots in the three days it operated.

Nurse Shelly McHugh said health officials are still seeing people come in for their first dose of vaccine.

"About 50 per cent are first time, getting their first dose. So, we're just trying to make it as easy as possible as flexible as possible, because we really want people to get their vaccines," said McHugh.

As of Wednesday, 1,478,410 doses of vaccine have been administered. Of those, 709,884 Nova Scotians have received their second dose.

There are 173 active COVID cases in the province. Most of the new cases being reported are related to a cluster in the northern part of the province.

"We might be seeing that for a little while just because if somebody's already been exposed they might be a close contact and you might expect them to test positive in the near future even if they haven't yet already," said epidemiologist Kevin Wilson. "Probably the more concerning thing is untraced cases in the Halifax area which I think kind of flies under the radar a bit."

Wilson says every person who is vaccinated is a person who becomes drastically less likely to end up in hospital.          

"The more people we get vaccinated is the more people we can keep out of the hospital and make any future outbreaks that happen much more easy to manage from a health care perspective," said Wilson.

Shelly McHugh said it's never too late to get vaccinated.

"We want to protect as many people as possible in Nova Scotia, we want to get our vaccine rates up to as high as possible so that our general population is protected, we can start to open up more and we can get back to living the way that we did before this virus happened," she said.

Public Health wants to have 75 per cent of the province's entire population double dosed. Right now, 73.1 per cent of Nova Scotians are fully immunized.

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