Province’s top doctor working with retail sector to plan for Christmas rush

Nova Scotia's top doctor says the province is taking steps to keep COVID-19 top of mind as Christmas draws closer.

Dr. Robert Strang announced that he is working with retail shops and businesses on how to manage the busy holiday shopping season.

“We're going to be putting out some clear guidance in the next week or so,” said the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health at a COVID-19 briefing on Nov. 13.

“We've also started some conversations with business sectors, including the retail sector about this.”

Strang added that there are firm rules surrounding gathering numbers and direction for how businesses can operate over the holidays.

He added guidance will be made public once he meets with retail and business sectors about how to manage public health rules and flows of groups of no more than 10 during the shopping season in busy malls.

“It's their responsibility to figure out how to run their business or operation but stick within the public health rules,” said Strang. “We'll support them and I'm doing a lot of business sector consultations over the next few weeks to help them understand and answer questions.”

Strang added that  people also need to take responsibility for their own actions and continue to practice COVID-19 protocols like mask-wearing while they are shopping at malls and businesses.

He also noted that students will have tough decisions to make this year since, if they leave the Atlantic region for Christmas, they must isolate for 14 days upon return and students coming home for the holidays from outside of Atlantic Canada will also have to isolate for 14 days.