COVID-19 immunization clinic setting up. Photo: Nova Scotia Government
Nova Scotians at the highest risk for severe illness from Covid-19 can now book their spring dose.
The booster will be available from March 25 to May 31.
The groups eligible to book right now are those 65 or older, people 18 or over in long-term care, nursing homes or residential care facilities; people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised and those 50 or older who are indigenous or black.
Dr. Robert Strang said in a news release that cases are steady in Nova Scotia. But he urged people at the highest risk of infection to get their spring booster.
People who did not get a dose in the fall or winter can get the spring dose, even if they are not part of the specific groups mentioned.
Dr. Robert Strang. Photo Communications Nova Scotia
Students can look forward to an extended holiday break this year.
Premier Tim Houston made the announcement at Tuesday’s COVID briefing that public schools will return January 6 instead of January 4 as previously planned.
Houston says the education department proposed the extra time to provide public health officials more time to assess any potential COVID spread following the holiday break.
“The department, just on balance, looked at what’s happening around and said a couple more days is not going to hurt the academic calendar,” said Houston. “If we can get through the holidays and kind of reset starting in the new year, that’s better for students and teachers.”
Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang says the province’s vaccination rates are climbing.
Almost 82 percent of residents are fully vaccinated.
Strang expects those numbers will increase even more as parents have been snapping up vaccination appointment for their five- to eleven-year-olds.
“So far, almost 29,000 of 65,000 five- to eleven-year-olds, and that’s almost 45 percent, have had a first dose or an appointment scheduled,” said Strang. “That’s quite something, we’ve just begun immunizing a week ago.”
Strang is still urging Nova Scotians to be cautious and follow COVID protocols such as wearing masks, frequent hand-washing and social distancing.
He says that caution should be front of mind when making holiday travel plans as well.
“We’re certainly far more open than we were last Christmas but we’re still in a pandemic. For me it’s about, we need to slow down our lives and be careful about how active we are,” said Strang. “There’s more virus around in New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec than there is in Nova Scotia. So, now’s the time to enjoy the increased freedoms, if you will, and opportunities we have in Nova Scotia while we’re still in a pandemic. But also, let’s not go crazy.”
Strang says everyone still needs to be careful and cautious, even within the province, about how much travel, and how many social events and people they’re exposed to.
He encourages Nova Scotians to enjoy a much less restricted holiday season than last year.
