Nova Scotia Set To Receive ‘Biggest Shipment To Date’ Of Covid-19 Vaccines
HALIFAX—Nova Scotia will soon receive its “biggest single shipment of [Covid-19] vaccines to date.”
Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said Nova Scotia is expecting 10,530 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to arrive this week.
Those doses will help public health officials further expand their vaccination program as the doses are delivered to seven cold storage sites across the province.
This week, the province will set up new vaccination clinics in Antigonish, the South Shore, and Cumberland. Those will operate in addition to clinics already running in Halifax, Truro, Kentville, and Cape Breton.
As of February 15, the province had administered 23,140 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. Of those, 8,225 were second doses.
“It may feel like a slow process but we are now able to administer the vaccine in all parts of our province. And as more supply comes in we will be agile and ready,” Premier Stephen McNeil said.
Until now, vaccines have only been given to the highest priority people, such as frontline healthcare workers and long-term care residents.
Now, however, Nova Scotians in the general population are being allowed to book appointments, starting with a randomly selected cohort of people 85 and older.
Cases Still Low, But Trending Slightly Higher
The expansion of the province’s vaccine program comes as Nova Scotia recorded three new cases of Covid-19 on Feb. 16, bringing the total cases in the province to 12. All three cases were related to travel and each of the people identified are self-isolating as required.
Strang pointed out the province hasn’t seen more than two cases in one day since January and said today’s cases are a reminder of “the vulnerable position that Nova Scotia is in.”
He reminded Nova Scotians of the two cases of the extra-contagious UK variant of Covid-19 reported by the province last week.
He said public health officials have conducted a “detailed re-investigation” that tested more than 150 people to determine both a source of the infections and weather the cases themselves had resulted in further spread of the variant strain.
Although the province is still waiting on results from a few of those tests, Strang said all so far have come back negative.
That means there is “no indication of community spread” of the UK variant in Nova Scotia stemming from those two cases.
Earlier this month, Covid-19 cases in Newfoundland exploded, thanks in no small part to the arrival of the UK variant in that province.
Strang said he [doesn’t] have a full explanation” for why the UK Covid-19 variant spread so quickly in Newfoundland but not in Nova Scotia, other than to suggest that following public health measures works.
“We have to assume the majority of people who were potentially exposed [in Nova Scotia] were following all the public health measures” and that’s why they weren’t infected, he said.
He said the situation in Newfoundland is a stark reminder of how quickly Covid-19 can rear its head, even when it appears there are very few cases left in a region, and asked Nova Scotians to continue to follow all public health guidelines.