The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
No community clusters remain: Strang
Nova Scotians have successfully reduced COVID-19 transmission enough that no communities can now be considered “clusters,” Dr. Robert Strang said on Tuesday during the province's regular video update.
“We had a definition of a number of cases per, when we looked at it by postal code, and above that threshold we said were community clusters,” Strang said. “We're now at a place where the number of cases — even within HRM — is low enough that we don't have any that meet that threshold.”
Strang and Premier Stephen Mcneil announced during the update that only one new confirmed COVID-19 case was identified in tests performed on Monday, bringing the total in the province to 1,020.
“We're now seeing very sporadic new cases occurring in communities, so even in HRM, there is no indication of significant ongoing community transmission,” he said.
“All of which is where we want to be, but we need that trend to continue. We need to be very careful of moving too soon.”
The chief medical officer of health cautioned that now is not the time to get lax on maintaining social distancing and other measures.
“We have had a few good days in the past week with low numbers and that is good news. But I want to caution everyone against reading too much into any single day or any few days. We are in a long-term situation and we need to have sustained changes before we can make definitive conclusions.”
Strang said the fact that two more residents of the Northwood long-term care facility in Halifax died over the weekend reinforces how serious the disease can be.
Public health officials would like to see a period of a minimum of one incubation period of two weeks — ideally two incubation periods, or 28 days — with little or no cases before they can start to move into the recovery strategy.
Mcneil said allowing shopping or opening up malls in other parts of the province at this point, when the remaining cases being identified are only in HRM, doesn't make sense because potentially sick people could travel from HRM to go shopping in other areas.
Strang also said there will be some news coming soon about relaxing some restrictions around going outside.
“We're actively looking at some other steps that may allow some additional opening up into outdoor spaces while still following rules around social distancing, etc. You'll hear more about that in the days ahead.”
The QEII Health Sciences Centre's microbiology lab completed 427 tests on Monday. There are nine people in hospital, four of those in the ICU.
“It's important that we continue
to have Nova Scotians that have symptoms that could be COVID-19 come forward and be tested very early on so we can do appropriate public health followup as necessary,” Strang said.
He continues to recommend that anyone who has two or more of the common symptoms — fever, new or worsening cough, sore throat, runny nose or headache — consult the province's 811 online assessment tool or call 811 directly.
Strang particularly stressed that information from the World Health Organization now points to an increased risk that those who smoke or vape may develop more severe COVID-19 cases than nonsmokers.
“Since COVID-19, we know, is going to be with us for a while, my message today is that if you smoke or vape, it certainly will be impacting your health and also putting you at increased risk for severe illness and poor outcomes if you do get COVID-19.”
He recommends smokers seek help from health-care providers, 811, and other supports to help them quit.
Strang also said students who left belongings at their schools when the province's pandemic measures closed them will have a chance to retrieve them, now that the schools will not be reopened this term.
“Beginning the week of May 25, a single student or family member will be able to access their local school by appointment,” Strang said.
“Regional centres for education will be in touch with students and families in the near future for more details around how to make appointments.”
There are three licensed long-term care homes and unlicensed seniors' facilities in Nova Scotia with active cases of COVID-19, he said. Northwood has 157 residents and eight staff with active cases. One other facility has one staff member with an active case and another facility has one resident with an active case.
To date, Nova Scotia has 34,204 negative test results, 1,020 positive COVID-19 test results and 48 deaths. Eighthundred and sixty-four individuals have now recovered and their cases of COVID-19 are considered resolved.
A map and graphic presentation of the case data is available at https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/data .