Strang Says ‘No Guarantees’ N.S. Restrictions Will Be Lifted By Christmas
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s top health official won’t guarantee restrictions limiting gathering sizes and forcing businesses closed in the areas around Halifax will be lifted by Christmas.
“I’ll give no guarantees one way or the other,” Dr. Robert Strang said at a press briefing on November 27.
Strang also said he had no plans to implement further restrictions right now, but that the province “will, if necessary, make changes” to the rules if Covid-19 continues to spread within the province.
Strang said he “truly” believes the situation can be brought under control within weeks if Nova Scotians follow the rules and the spread of Covid-19 slows.
Whatever happens, however, Premier Stephen McNeil says people should start planning for a different kind of holiday season this year.
“All of us should plan that this holiday season, this Christmas, will look very different,” the premier said.
As Covid-19 cases have spiked in the province, the government has reduced the allowed gathering sizes, forced some businesses closed, and asked people not to travel outside their community unless absolutely necessary.
Meanwhile, other Atlantic provinces, each facing their own rising case numbers, have one by one pulled out of the much-lauded Atlantic Bubble.
Despite the bubble bursting, McNeil said he believes the initiative was a “huge success.”
“I think it’s been a huge success in many ways. And to be perfectly frank, it’s been a huge success to the health of Atlantic Canadians,” McNeil said, adding that opening up travel within Atlantic Canada caused “a level of anxiety to disappear” during the gloomiest days of the first wave.
RELATED: Nova Scotia Tightens Covid-19 Restrictions
Strang added that when the bubble can be reformed it will likely look much the same as it did the first time. He said he doesn’t see Nova Scotia opening up to the rest of Canada any time soon, and that when we do some form of rapid testing program will likely be involved.
On Friday, Nova Scotia reported nine new cases of Covid-19, all in the Central Zone. Over the weekend, the government reported 24 new cases, with 125 active cases in the province.
Strang repeated that he has expected cases to continue being reported in fairly high numbers throughout this week and the weekend as the new restrictions start to take effect. He said he’s encouraged by the relatively lower number of new cases announced today.
Despite that, he said Nova Scotia is “by no means out of the woods yet” when it comes to the second wave of the pandemic.
Strang pointed out that, in just a week, the province has gone from fewer than 300 open investigations of Covid-19 cases to more than 1,000.
He said each case has an average of seven close contacts but that “many have much more than that.”
The province has rolled out an expansive new testing strategy to deal with the rising cases, but Strang said the volume means “everything gets more complicated, everything takes more time,” now.
The strategy includes testing asymptomatic people who worked at or attended “late-night” bars over the past few weeks (where the virus is spreading the fastest) as well as pop-up testing sites around the city utilizing rapid, point-of-care tests.
RELATED: Rapid Testing Continues In Halifax Aimed At Bar And Restaurant Staff And Patrons
“We’re very much building the plane and flying it at the same time” with the new testing strategy, Strang said.
For more information on the province’s testing strategy, including if and how to schedule a test, visit the province’s coronavirus web portal.