'It was life and death': McNeil, Strang reflect on early handling of COVID-19 pandemic

As anxiety grew among Nova Scotians over the fear of the arrival of COVID-19 in early March 2020, Premier Stephen McNeil wanted to meet with a public health official he barely knew.

That person's name? Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief medical officer of health.

Because Public Health operates independently of government, McNeil said there was a hesitance for the department to meet with his office.

The two men were soon joined at the hip, providing daily news conferences discussing the state of the pandemic in the province, providing consistent messaging about what people should and shouldn't be doing.

To mark the five-year anniversary of Nova Scotia's first presumptive COVID-19 cases, CBC News spoke with McNeil and Strang to get their thoughts on the province's early pandemic response, as well as if they would have done anything differently.

Dec. 28, 2019, might seem like a random date, but Strang remembers it well. It was the day he and others on a public health database that tracks disease activity around the world first received notification about a severe respiratory illness in Wuhan, China.

Strang said that in January 2020, he and other chief medical officers of health across the country started having phone calls about this virus.

Nova Scotia's Public Health unit had previously developed pandemic response plans for things like SARS and swine flu (H1N1). Drawing on these plans, Public Health started working with the health-care system to prepare for COVID-19. As time passed, more and more layers of government were brought into the fold.

"Can we slow it down, limit its spread while we learn more about it?" said Strang.

On Sunday, March 15, 2020, Nova Scotia announced its first presumptive cases. It also announced that schools, which were going to be closed for March break that week, would remain closed for an additional two weeks after that.

A day later, public gatherings were capped at 150 people. Another day later, the limit for public gatherings was lowered to 50 people.

All gyms, spas, barbershops and salons, body art establishments and nail salons were ordered on March 18 to close.

Bars were ordered to close by Thursday, March 19, while restaurants would only be permitted to offer takeout.

"Here's people who, through no fault of their own, have [spent], in many cases, decades working in this sector, building a business, [then] we called up next day and said, 'Sorry, we're closing you and you have no choice,'" said McNeil.