Passengers wear face masks on a Halifax Transit ferry as it arrives in Dartmouth, N.S. on Friday, July 24, 2020, the first day they have been mandatory on public transit.
Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Nova Scotia has zero confirmed active COVID-19 cases – including no new cases and no hospitalizations – for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
The microbiology lab at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax completed 433 tests on Saturday and found no new cases, the province said in a statement issued Sunday.
The milestone in the Atlantic province comes as other parts of Canada – including B.C., Alberta and Ontario – are seeing a resurgence in cases linked to reopenings and private gatherings, with young people accounting for many of the new cases.
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Lisa Barrett, an infectious disease doctor at Nova Scotia Health and a professor and researcher at Dalhousie University, said she is excited by the fact the province currently has no active cases. She credited the early buy-in from Nova Scotians for driving the case count down: Many people stayed home and avoided busy places before they were told to do so.
However, she cautioned that no confirmed cases does not mean no cases, and said the province should facilitate more widespread testing.
“Our testing numbers are between 250 and 500 a day lately, sometimes a little more,” Dr. Barrett said. “That’s not a ton of [tests] for a province with a million people and a lot of people crossing the border and coming in to airports every day.
“I think there are still active cases out there. We just haven’t tested them yet.”
Nova Scotia has recorded a total of 1,067 cases and 63 deaths, with those who have fallen ill ranging in age from 10 to 90. It has not identified a new case of the disease since July 14.
The province has announced a number of measures in recent weeks to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, including a requirement that anyone visiting from the Atlantic provinces show proof of residency to enter. Those who reside outside the “Atlantic bubble” are required to fill out a tracking and self-declaration form and self-isolate for 14 days.
As of last Friday, it became mandatory for drivers and passengers on public transportation to wear non-medical masks. And beginning this Friday, people will also be required to wear masks in most indoor public places, including retail businesses, movie theatres and beauty salons.
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There are some exceptions: Masks are required in common areas of office buildings but not in private offices, and in public areas of college and university campuses but not in classrooms, labs and offices, for example.
Premier Stephen McNeil said continued vigilance is necessary to minimize the impact of a second wave of COVID-19 as the province continues to reopen its economy, schools and communities.
“Wearing a non-medical mask in most indoor public places is a key part of how we protect each other and support our local businesses so they can stay open for the long run,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Dr. Barrett encouraged Nova Scotians to enjoy the summer but to keep basic precautions in mind. This includes keeping gatherings small and other personal contacts limited, wearing a mask and practising good hand hygiene.
“The difference between zero and 50 cases takes no time. This is not a hypothetical, this is not the bogeyman; it’s happening all across our country right now,” she said, citing Kelowna, B.C., as an example.
At least 78 people contracted the disease after events and parties in the B.C. city around Canada Day, and nearly 1,000 others are in self-isolation across the province stemming from related potential exposures.
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“That’s what I’d say to people: Would you rather be a little cautious on the precautions or would you prefer that we walk everything backwards because we have a bad week, we get a ton of new cases and then we spend the summer on lockdown?”
As of Sunday, there were about 5,600 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 across the country. In all, at least 113,898 people in Canada have tested positive for the disease, with 99,355 recoveries and 8,889 deaths. Health officials have administered more than four million tests.
British Columbia averaged more than 30 new cases each day last week, after rarely having seen more than 20 new cases a day since May, while Alberta recorded more than 100 new cases every day last week – a level also not seen since May. Neither province provided an update on the weekend.
On Sunday, Ontario recorded 137 new cases, with 58 per cent of those cases in people under 40. Quebec confirmed 169 new cases and one more death.
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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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