AMHERST, N.S. – With warmer weather on the way, and concerns about the spread of COVID-19, there are concerns about the impact the virus could have on cottage country near the border with New Brunswick.
“I haven’t heard of it happening here, but I’ve seen stories about cottage country in Ontario where it is happening,” area municipal Councillor Joe van Vulpen told SaltWire. “It would be a concern if it were to happen here because in some cases you may think you’re escaping when you’re actually carrying. It’s going to be a concern going into May, June and July with people going to their cottages.”
The area between Pugwash and the New Brunswick border at Tidnish Bridge has many cottages and many of them are in close proximity to each other. His hope is that most people would opt to stay at home this summer and only go to the cottage if they need to.
It’s a feeling shared by Cumberland County’s EMO co-ordinator Mike Johnson.
“If people are going to go their cottage and hunker down, stay there and not gather outside with others, whether they’re at their cottage or at their home it doesn’t make a big difference,” Johnson said. “The whole idea is to limit exposure. If people find they can limit exposure by going to the cottage and watching the water, then so be it.”
A Port Howe area resident, who asked not to be identified, said she has concerns with the upcoming cottage season.
“I live in cottage central. My concerns are people could be moving the virus around and they could be placing a burden on rural health care capacity,” she said. “They could also go undetected, or unenforced, for their isolation because no one is patrolling these areas and you know there will be campfires and other gatherings because no one is watching.”
The province’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang said people going to the cottage run the risk of not having access to help should the need arise.
“If people in Nova Scotia go to a more remote area to protect themselves it’s OK as long as they’re being self-sufficient in that location,” he said. “However, if they have health conditions or are elderly and more vulnerable to severe conditions they also have to think about how they access care.”
Strang is urging non-Nova Scotians to refrain from coming to the province during the current crisis.
“This is not a time to be moving from one part of the country to another,” he said. “I would encourage people to stay in their home community in their home province as we all work to ride this COVID-19 situation out as a nation.”
While the Nova Scotia government began restricting access to the province at all entry points a week ago, some are being more closely watched than others.
The main land entry point at Fort Lawrence, near Amherst, is being staffed by provincial employees, but another land crossing 20 km away at Tidnish Bridge is not being monitored.
There’s just a sign there advising motorists to enter Nova Scotia via the Trans-Canada Highway.
“We are manning the main border and we continue to have an information stop to tell fellow Nova Scotians to go home and self-isolate,” Premier Stephen McNeil said Tuesday. “We have a number of people who cross that border daily for work and are practising all the protocols that public health has put out. Plus, we have goods and services crossing that border every day and we will continue to allow that to happen. If people are showing up at the border to vacation or socialize, we’re encouraging them to go home. If they choose to come to Nova Scotia, they have to self-isolate like the rest of us.”
Provincial Progressive Conservative leader Tim Houston said has supported the premier’s messaging throughout the health crisis, but feels all border crossings should be staffed, not just the major ones.
Houston said officials at the border crossings and law enforcement officers need to be given clear instructions and people need to understand self-isolation does not mean stopping to pick up groceries or gassing up their vehicles.
“We need to support the law enforcement community with clear instructions on how to handle that,” Houston said. “That should be consistent at all the crossings, including the secondary crossing at Tidnish. There should be someone there stopping cars and informing people that we are in a state of emergency and this is required if they wish to travel into Nova Scotia. They need to self-isolate. They need to know what this entails.”
Houston said there should be more than enough resources within the provincial government to ensure all the crossings are staffed.
He said if someone is going to their cottage they need to respect the requirements of social distancing.
“This is not the time for people to go to the cottage and have a bonfire or have a party with their neighbours,” he said. “Anyone who is going to their cottage needs to respect the advice of Dr. Strang and the premier and the requirements of the state of emergency.”
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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