Nova Scotia has announced stricter COVID-19 restrictions as the province continues to see a spike in cases.
At Sunday's COVID-19 briefing, Dr. Robert Strang said the current situation is making him "very anxious."
Today, April 25, Nova Scotia reported 63 new cases of COVID-19 for a total of 263. It's the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases the province has seen since the pandemic began.
Premier Iain Rankin said no one should travel outside of their communities unless it's absolutely necessary.
With the highest case count (63) since COVID entered our province, we are adding new restrictions:
- We’re doubling fines for breaking public health protocols from $1K to $2K
- No non-essential travel outside of your community
- Gathering limit of 10 for those outside the HRM
— Iain Rankin (@IainTRankin) April 25, 2021
On April 23, restrictions were put in place for the Halifax Regional Municipality and other communities including no events, closure to seated service at restaurants, reducing operating capacities at retail businesses to 25 per cent and a reduced gathering limit.
Outside of the HRM, the province has also reduced gathering limits to 10 people — indoors and outdoors — including the family household.
Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health, said people should get outdoors but that they should stay within their families and small social groups, as well as their homes.
He also said shopping trips should only be for essentials and should be designated to one person in a household.
“This is what we did a year ago and we need to do it again,” he said.
Moreover, Strang said workers should work from home if possible and employers should enforce a work-from-home model.
“Don’t lose hope but please take this seriously,” he said. “Look at what’s happening in other jurisdictions. We’ve driven COVID out of our province before — twice — and we can do it again.
“We can get COVID back under control so that we can have a safe and less restrictive summer.”
The province will review the current restrictions on May 20.
At the briefing, Rankin and Strang expressed some optimism.
Strang said the measures that came into effect on Friday will take some time to show change.
“The activity you see in front of us, like today, that was the result of things that were happening and disease transmission a week to two weeks ago,” he said. “So, we need to watch at least for about a week. I expect that by the middle towards the end of this coming week that, if what we’re doing is having an impact, we will start to see some of the things trend downward in the Halifax area.
“So, we have to have some patience.”
He said for the next few days, cases in the province will likely be high reaching the 40s and possibly going higher than the 60s.
“That’s entirely as we’re having more spread," Strang said. "But it’s also a result of the fact that we’re testing a lot of people — we’re testing thousands of people.
“We want to identify these people [and] get them tested. Now we know they’re positive and we can isolate them and put quarantine on their contacts.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the province could test 200 people a day; the province can now test up to 15,000 Nova Scotians a day.
“The response from Nova Scotians in general continues to amaze me,” Strang said. “We have asked people to come out and get tested. And once again, you have done that — and I appreciate that.
“We can be the storm and roll back. Lock arms, Nova Scotia, and stay strong.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiigFodHRwczovL3d3dy5oYWxpZmF4dG9kYXkuY2EvY29yb25hdmlydXMtY292aWQtMTktbG9jYWwtbmV3cy9ub3ZhLXNjb3RpYS1jcmVhdGVzLXN0cmljdGVyLWNvdmlkLTE5LXJlc3RyaWN0aW9ucy1hbWlkLXNwaWtlLWluLWNhc2VzLTM2NjQyOTLSAQA?oc=5
2021-04-25 20:08:53Z
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