COVID Numbers Continue Sharp Surge in NS
Going from zero to sixty in a very short time used to be the goal in the car industry — it was never the goal in measuring bad news in health care.
Just over a week ago Nova Scotia was basking in the limelight with zero new cases of COVID-19 while other provinces were urging stringent action to curb runaway numbers in what became know as “the third wave”.
Today the province reported fifty-two new cases, touching the usual health care areas of the province, but now also including ours, the Northern Zone.
More disturbing to some is the coronavirus is popping up at schools here, there, and everywhere. Nobody likes to think of kids and serious illness in the same breath.
Forty-four cases were reported today in Central Zone, four in Eastern Zone, and four in Northern.
Given the most recent public warnings of possible COVID exposures have referenced locations in Truro and Pictou County, Cumberland may once again have dodged a bullet. By the way, those exposure alerts used to list a few sites but today the list ran to four pages.
Truro’s Cobequid Educational Centre was included Friday among the growing list of schools impacted by confirmation of an infection. Schools from all around HRM and as far as Sydney have been affected, most closing, requiring students to revert to learning from home.
The sudden spike in new cases led the province to impose strict sanctions in the Halifax area and Premier Iain Rankin says, “We are at a critical point in our effort to get the pandemic under control. Please avoid non-essential travel in and out of HRM and surrounding communities.”
Despite the harsh reality, Halifax police were called to a large and illegal house party in the city’s south end last night. Twenty-two people were ticketed for breaching the public health restrictions, each facing a fine of $1,000.
Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health says, “Stopping COVID-19 from getting a stronger foothold in the province is now up to you.” Dr. Robert Strang added, “Every single person's actions play a role and if we all work together, like we have before, we can protect ourselves and each other.”
The rising infection rate is disturbing, but Nova Scotia remains among the lowest. Ontario reported more than four thousand new cases for the third day in a row, while India shocked the world with news of more than 300 thousand positive results each day over the last two days.
Nova Scotia now has 201 active cases of COVID-19. Residents are strongly encouraged to seek a COVID test even though asymptomatic, that is with no symptoms evident, particularly if they have a large number of close contacts due to their work or social activities. Appointments can be booked at https://covid-self-assessment.novascotia.ca/, by choosing the asymptomatic option. Rapid testing pop-up sites continue to be set up around the province, though none lately in Cumberland.
More information on testing can be found at https://www.nshealth.ca/coronavirustesting.
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