Atlantic Bubble welcome.

Ninety days ago, the province declared a state of emergency to try to counter the threat from a new, deadly virus infecting the planet.

As Nova Scotia, like other places, went into lockdown due to COVID-19, economic activity slowed to a crawl. Normally bustling streets and highways lay quiet and eerily deserted. Most of us, if out at all, gave each other a wide berth as we passed.

Most Nova Scotians stayed the blazes home.

It's been a tough three months, with closed borders, lost jobs and businesses struggling to survive. There have been more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19, causing 62 deaths, in the province — many, tragically, at the Northwood long-term care facility in Halifax.

But, knock on wood, it appears the population's efforts have worked.

The much-discussed rising curve of new infections flattened and then declined. And, as the situation has improved, the province — ever cautiously — has been slowly reopening.

On Thursday, Premier Stephen Mcneil and Dr. Robert Strang, chief medical officer of health, announced the latest loosening of the lockdown. Household “bubbling,” the requirement people maintain social distancing while gathering in familiar groups of no more than 10, was being burst. Physical separation in such circumstances was no longer the rule. People could now hug loved ones again.

Larger gatherings of up to 50 are also now permitted with social distancing. Playgrounds can reopen.

Thankfully, on Friday, we marked the 10th consecutive day without a new coronavirus case in Nova Scotia.

The good news, and continued loosening of rules, is more than welcome, both for people's psychological wellbeing and the economy.

And the way forward is also becoming clearer. Provinces in our region have all done reasonably good jobs of containing COVID-19 and crushing the curve. That's allowed premiers and chief medical officers of health in this region to plan to drop border restrictions and create an Atlantic bubble, allowing people in our four provinces to travel freely in Atlantic Canada — without the need to self-isolate for 14 days — hopefully sometime early next month.

If all goes well, dropping similar restrictions to visitors from the rest of Canada could come next, later in July.

There's no question of the urgency to get our economy moving again. Governments that have doled out much-needed assistance to individuals and businesses cannot do so forever; that's all borrowed money that governments — meaning taxpayers — will someday have to repay.

At the same time, as Premier Mcneil rightly said, until there's a vaccine or a cure, we're going to have to learn to live with the coronavirus.

That means that as we reopen, hoping to return to a semblance of normalcy, we can't afford to let our guard down. If we don't use caution, individually and collectively, the progress we've achieved could disappear in a subsequent wave of new infections.