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Premier’s ‘delightfully Nova Scotian’ cry to respect physical distancing goes viral – Global News

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One premier’s war cry for citizens to respect physical distancing during the novel coronavirus pandemic has gone viral.

The call to “stay the blazes home” came on Friday during one of Nova Scotia’s daily press conferences.

Premier Stephen McNeil spoke forcefully from a table accompanied by Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health.

READ MORE: ‘Stay the blazes home,’ McNeil warns as Nova Scotia COVID-19 cases surpass 200

As he has done for every day since the province declared a state of emergency last month, McNeil urged Nova Scotian’s to respect physical distancing and remain indoors unless absolutely necessary.

“The virus will find you. Then it finds your loved ones. Then it finds your neighbourhoods…”

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“Then we have community spread,” McNeil said, appearing to barely contain his anger within his 6’7” frame.


READ MORE:
Coronavirus: 29 new cases confirmed in Nova Scotia

McNeil was addressing a new Google report of location data collected from its users that showed a 95 per cent increase at the province’s parks from Feb. 16 to March 29 in comparison to a five-week period earlier this year.

“Then everyone is putting pressure on public health to solve it, and our health-care system to deal with it when all we have to do is stay the blazes home,” the premier said.

It’s a phrase that has captured the imaginations of Nova Scotians, many of whom remain cooped up at home and looking for something to break them out of the monotony.

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Within a few hours of the remark being made, the phrase was trending on Twitter, eventually reaching the No. 1 spot in Canada.

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Part of the popularity was the immediate memeification of the phrase, with social media users putting their editing skills to use to create new and inventive ways to capture the phrase.

It is now even beginning to appear on T-shirts, mugs and socks as Nova Scotians clamour for a physical item that has captured the attention of a frustrated populace.

Liz Mac, an artist and illustrator in Dartmouth, N.S., is one of the people working to fill that need.

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“People were saying, ‘oh, I want that on a T-shirt. I want this on a T-shirt’ and me being a broke artist, I saw an opportunity to give people what they want,” Mac said in a phone interview on Saturday.

Within a few hours of her creating her site, she had dozens of orders.

Mac said that the profit margins are fairly small on the items so she’s unlikely to make any money on the venture but she said it’s worth it.

“[Stay the blazes inside] is so delightfully Nova Scotian,” she said.

“You could tell that the premier is very angry with… a reckless few and it’s you know, as close as he can get to literally swearing at us without actually swearing.”

READ MORE: Stanfield’s looks to fill 50 jobs ‘immediately’ to make medical gowns

Adam Faber, a musician originally from Nova Scotia, compared McNeil’s attempt to shame the province into compliance as the premier being the province’s “angry dad.”

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Faber is known to make parody songs on his accordion and he said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“You know people are just down for a laugh presently and they’re all stuck to their phones anyway,” said Faber.

“It’s kind of a perfect storm.”

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Faber’s song has since been shared hundreds of times online and he credits the unique East Coast culture for the phrase’s popularity.

“I think it’s just the perfect way to encapsulate how we deal as east coasters at a time of stress,” Faber said.

My Home Apparel, a company based out of Truro and Moncton, N.B., said they sold over $6,000 worth of their new “stay the blazes home” T-shirt in less than an hour.

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The company says 100 per cent of the proceeds from the sales will be donated to Feed Nova Scotia, the QEII Foundation’s COVID-19 response fund and Shelter Nova Scotia.

Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:

Health officials caution against all international travel. Returning travellers are legally obligated to self-isolate for 14 days, beginning March 26, in case they develop symptoms and to prevent spreading the virus to others. Some provinces and territories have also implemented additional recommendations or enforcement measures to ensure those returning to the area self-isolate.

Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.

To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out.

For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, click here.

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© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Canada to donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to combat mpox outbreaks in Africa

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The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.

It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.

Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”

Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.

Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.

On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.

Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”

But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”

“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.

Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.

Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.

Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.

“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.

“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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How many Nova Scotians are on the doctor wait-list? Number hit 160,000 in June

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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.

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Newfoundland and Labrador monitoring rise in whooping cough cases: medical officer

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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.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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