Private Clinics In N.S. With ‘Non-Urgent’ Health Services Must Close
HALIFAX – As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nova Scotia continues to rise, the province’s Chief Medical Examiner has ordered more businesses to shut their doors.
Dr. Robert Strang announced Tuesday that all health professionals who aren’t doctors, nurses, pharmacists, or paramedics must stop seeing non-urgent patients.
Strang said regulated health professionals such as therapists, physiotherapists, optometrists, and others can only see patients face-to-face in “emergent or urgent cases.”
Even then, he said, they can only offer in-person care “as long as they’re meeting all the requirements of social distancing and cleaning protocols within their office.”
Where appropriate, seeing patients virtually is still allowed.
Meanwhile, Strang said non-regulated health professions such as naturopaths and some massage therapists “must close.”
The one exception is podiatrists, who must follow the same rules as registered health professionals about emergent and urgent cases.
These new closures come after Sunday’s announcement that dentist offices would have to close (except in urgent cases). Dentists, like physiotherapists and optometrists, are regulated health professionals.
At a press conference today, Strang said the closures are to further enforce social distancing measures the province has ordered as it attempts to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Since yesterday, 10 new cases of the virus have been confirmed in Nova Scotia, bringing the total in the province to 51. In total, 2,474 people in Nova Scotia have tested negative for the virus.
“But we know that as the number of cases continues to rise – and we will get more cases – we can expect we will soon see community spread,” Strang said. “That is why we’ve taken the actions we’ve taken.”
“I know that people are making many sacrifices to do this. What we’re doing is creating a significant turmoil and disruption for people, but it’s critically important. Our collective actions do matter greatly,” he added.
Strang also said that lab capacity in Nova Scotia has now doubled, allowing the province to test 400 people a day instead of 200.
This means officials can now test anyone who has been in close contact with someone confirmed to have COVID-19.
“Now we’re not just putting them in isolation and seeing if they get sick, we’re testing them right away,” Strang said.
He said it will also be easier to test people in the hospital where appropriate, and the province can start testing people based on more than just their travel history.