Newest COVID-19 Case Comes From U.S.

Nova Scotia’s latest case of COVID-19 comes from the United States.

A person travelling from the U.S. to Prince Edward Island through Nova Scotia was identified as having the coronavirus on Sunday.

They are now being quarantined for 14 days under federal authority in Nova Scotia.

Travelers arriving in Nova Scotia must self –isolate for 14 days and provide authorities an address and telephone number where they can be reached.

Premier Stephen McNeil says greater steps will be taken to ensure those arrivals are following the rules.

“There will be follow-up calls everyday for 14 days. And if we can’t locate them after three tries, police will be called in to do an in-person check to make sure that that person is self-isolating where they said they would be.”

The province’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang says people flying within the Atlantic Bubble needn’t worry about self-isolating for 14 days, even if there are passengers travelling alongside them from other provinces.

“The actual travel on an airplane has not created substantive risks in transmission of COVID-19. Having said that, I would encourage that’s certainly a place where wearing a mask is vitally important, whether you’re in the airport terminus or on a plane.”

For weeks, Strang has been strongly suggesting Nova Scotians should be wearing a non-medical mask when they find themselves in public and unable to maintain social distancing.

“I keep saying here and I’ll keep saying it again. We can’t relax. It’s not about going back to normal, where we were, pre-COVID. We have to continue to be vigilant and we rely on each of us to practice these basic preventive measures. That’s what allows us to protect each other and allows us to continue to open things up and do that safely.”

Concerns have been raised that mandating wearing a mask would step on people’s Charter rights.

Strang says that’s not the case.

“There’s lots of examples of where governments, by necessity, to protect our collective good, that we put restrictions on people’s individual rights. We need to think about this carefully. But absolutely, if there’s a necessity to mandate masks, if we not able to get to where we need to be with less stringent measures, that’s something we would need to look at. And clearly, there’s precedent that we could do this from a legal perspective.”

Strang cautions Nova Scotians need to start to wearing masks or face the consequences.

“We don’t want to shut down again but if we don’t do a better job of all following these public health measures, we may end up in that situation.”

To date, Nova Scotia has 55,113 negative test results, 1,065 positive COVID-19 cases, 63 deaths and four active COVID-19 cases.

If you have any one of the following symptoms, visit https://811.novascotia.ca to determine if you should call 811 for further assessment:

— fever (i.e. chills, sweats)

— cough or worsening of a previous cough

— sore throat

— headache

— shortness of breath

— muscle aches

— sneezing

— nasal congestion/runny nose

— hoarse voice

— diarrhea

— unusual fatigue

— loss of sense of smell or taste

— red, purple or blueish lesions on the feet, toes or fingers without clear cause

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson