The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Lockdown to last ‘6, 8, 10 weeks at least’
We’re in it for the long haul, says Dr. Robert Strang.
At the daily COVID-19 update in Halifax on Wednesday, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health said restrictions may not be lifted for at least a couple of months.
“I’m not sure if it’s June or July, but I keep coming back to the point that we know this isn’t a two-week phenomenon. It’s a number of weeks,” Strang said.
“Six, eight, 10 weeks at least, and we’ll continue to monitor this.”
On Tuesday, the National Post obtained a federal document, suggesting “current measures continue until at least July” in a best-case scenario.
Later that day, Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, told reporters that it’s “definitely months, many months.”
But once some of the restrictions are lifted, that doesn’t mean things will snap back to normal.
“The other point that we need to be clear is that even when things start to get better, we don’t just take everything off at once,” Strang said.
“We have to loosen up the restrictions in a very careful, managed way and watch the disease epidemiology as we’re doing that.
“So even as we start to get back to normal, that doesn’t
mean that we get back to full normal right away. This is a long-term period and nobody knows for sure exactly how long.”
Strang's comments come after Nova Scotia reported its largest daily increase in identified COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
Twenty-six new cases of COVID-19 have been identified, bringing the province's total to 173. Of the 26 new cases, one is a staff member at The Magnolia, bringing the total to three staff members and two residents with COVID-19 at the Enfield residential care home. The residents are in self-isolation and staff members are isolating at home.
To date, Nova Scotia has 6,591 negative test results and 173 confirmed cases with most connected to travel or a known case.
The 173 people range in age from under 10 to over 80. Five of those people are in hospital, while 11 people have recovered and their cases of COVID-19 are considered resolved. Strang admitted he was nervous as the province continues to see double-digit cases of COVID-19 daily and community transmission.
“I didn't sleep well last night thinking about this,” he said.
“The next few weeks are critical ... of us sticking with all the public health directives."
Premier Stephen Mcneil echoed Strang's advice.
“How long this will be goes back to what Dr. Strang said in his opening comments: that'll depend on us,” Mcneil said. “If we follow the public health order, continue to make sure we self-isolate, do all the things that are appropriate, we'll slow down and flatten the curve which will then allow us to begin to gradually start opening our economy again.”