COVID-19 Cases Spike In Nova Scotia

USPA NEWS - Today, May 4th, Nova Scotia is reporting 2 deaths related to COVID-19. A woman in her 50s and a man in his 70s have died in Central Zone. The Central Zone includes Halifax, which is the province's capital and the largest city in Atlantic Canada. Today's deaths make 69 COVID-19 related deaths in the province.

During the Tuesday COVID-19 media update the province is reporting 153 new cases of virus in Nova Scotia. As of today, Nova Scotia has 1,060 active cases of COVID-19. There are 37 people in hospital, including 8 in ICU.

As Nova Scotians enter the second week of the province wide shutdown, Premier Ian Rankin and Dr. Robert Strang the chief medical officer of health are thanking most Nova Scotians for following the guidelines and restrictions in efforts to slow the spread of the deadly virus. However, both the Premier and Dr. Strang are frustrated at the small number of the population are choosing to ignore the rules.  This past weekend as case counts soared to record levels, Halifax Regional Police fined 37 people $2,000 each for breaking the rules. In addition, 2 men from the Halifax Regional Municipality were charged at a property in Queens County for non-essential travel outside the municipality. 

During the media update on Monday, Premier Ian Rankin had this to say, "What is wrong with you? How come you don't take this as seriously as you should? This third wave of COVID-19 is vastly different than the first 2 as it mostly involves the B.1.1.7 variant, which first emerged in the U.K. That's the variant you may take home and risk infecting your loved ones with, then go to work and infect your co-workers. What part of that pattern of spread do you not understand? The only answer I can come up with is that you don't care. We are in the third wave of a deadly pandemic and the selfish few don't care."

Dr. Strang said, "The restrictions are in place for 1 simple reason, they are necessary to keep Nova Scotians safe from the widespread COVID-19 activity currently happening in the Halifax area. We are not anywhere close to being out of the woods. These measures are absolutely necessary to get us to the other side of this outbreak with as little impact as possible on the health and safety of Nova Scotians. This virus can be deadly. It's not like COVID from a year ago, it's almost a new virus ... following the restrictions will save lives in your community and will protect health care and other essential workers who are putting their health at risk for you."