Dr. Strang, Premier Houston to give COVID-19 update as cases climb
CBC
Premier Tim Houston and Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health, are expected to give an update Monday as the number of COVID-19 infections continued its record-breaking climb over the weekend.
The update will be live streamed here. It's expected to begin at 2 p.m. AT.
Nova Scotia has reported 1,893 new cases of COVID-19 for the weekend — 709 on Saturday and a record 1,184 on Sunday.
The province has not provided an update on the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 since Friday. In that release, the province said there were 34 people in the hospital with COVID-19 in Nova Scotia, four of whom were in intensive care.
Strang told CBC's Information Morning on Monday that the increase in COVID-19 numbers over the weekend lines up with people gathering last weekend for Christmas. He also said he expects to see a similar bump in numbers in about a week due to New Year's Eve gatherings.
As well, Strang said masking remains "critically important," not just in schools but everywhere. He encouraged parents of school-aged children to give their kids three-layer masks to better protect them.
He said he feels the masking and other measures put in place will help protect kids when they return to school next week.
"By and large, COVID is a relatively mild illness especially in young people so we need to balance those out and so we feel where we're at today, we're still moving forward starting ... in-person learning a week from today," said Strang.
Several hospitals have reported outbreaks, including the Halifax Infirmary, Dartmouth General, the Victoria General site of the QEII Health Sciences Centre, St. Martha's Regional and New Waterford Consolidated.
Visitor restrictions have been put in place at the QEII Health Sciences Centre, Dartmouth General and Colchester East Hants Health Centre because of increased COVID-19 activity.
The province opened up access to booster dose appointments Monday morning for those 30+ who last had their second dose of vaccine at least 168 days ago.
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