‘Disturbing stories’ of intimidation ‘unacceptable,’ says Strang – HalifaxToday.ca

The province’s chief medical officer of health wants to see more caring and compassion and less blame and shame when it comes to dealing with COVID-19.

Dr. Robert Strang said, even though there is no longer a recommendation against all non-essential travel into and out of areas of HRM and Hants County, he’s heard that people who have been in the Halifax area are being denied service in other parts of the province.

“We’ve also heard stories about rotational workers who continue to be targeted within their communities, as well as their families and children,” Strang said at a Tuesday briefing. “I’ve heard disturbing stories. We are hearing instances of serious and intimidating communication to these individuals and families.

“This is unacceptable. We can not tolerate such behaviour in our communities.”

He understands there’s a lot of fear when it comes to COVID-19, but said “shaming and blaming” is not going to help stop the spread of the virus, and it could actually make the situation worse.

“Shaming and blaming creates stigma. It drives people underground, and when we drive them underground we lose our ability to work with them and keep our communities safe entirely,” he explained. 

“We need to be able to have people be open and transparent about their activities and their travel so we can work with them around testing and keeping our communities safe.”

Strang said COVID-19 is not just an issue in the Halifax area. There have been recent cases in all four Nova Scotia Health zones in the province. 

“There isn’t a single hotspot,” he said. “The potential for COVID is here regardless of what community you’re in in Nova Scotia.”

He suggested rather trying to find out who might have been exposed or who has tested positive, we should focus on making choices that will keep ourselves and our families safe.

“We are in the midst of a pandemic. People are going to test positive and we need to accept that,” he stated.

“Our goal right now is to keep our numbers as low as possible and we’re doing that, but we have to be realistic and it’s not realistic to expect that we’ll have no COVID at all.”

He’s urging us to show caring and compassion to fellow Nova Scotians as we move into the new year.

“We can’t assume everyone’s situation is like ours. We don’t know what other battles and challenges people may be having as they deal with COVID and all sorts of other issues,” he said.

“We need to be good to one another. That’s the energy I’m taking into 2021 and I ask you to do the same.” Strang added. “Caring, compassion and building up community — not blaming and shaming — and with a commitment to do the very best we can all together.”

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