Strang ‘not overly concerned’ about new COVID-19 cases but ‘never complacent’
Posted Mar 27, 2021 02:30:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
COVID-19 cases connected to Sackville-area schools were reported earlier this week, but Dr. Robert Strang said he's “not overly concerned” about the situation.
“While our overall case numbers have increased slightly, I'm not seeing anything yet that is overly concerning,” Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health, said. “This is the pattern. We're still in the pandemic; we are going to see sporadic cases.”
Nova Scotia reported five new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, as well as one probable case connected to Sackville Heights Junior High School.
On Thursday, Nova Scotia reported three new cases of COVID-19 and a case connected to Millwood High School.
“We know that the cases are connected,” Strang said at Friday's COVID-19 briefing.
“I'm not overly concerned, but I'm never complacent about COVID either.”
To allow for deep cleaning, testing and contact tracing, Sackville Heights Junior High School has closed and is expected to reopen on Thursday, April 1.
Millwood High School has also closed and is expected to reopen on Wednesday, March 31.
Students from both schools are learning from home and families will receive updates the day before the schools are expected to reopen.
Due to the cases reported from the two schools, Nova Scotia Public Health has set up a mobile testing site at the Sackville Legion. Drop-in or pre-booked testing is available until Sunday, March 28 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Strang said Public Health expects sporadic cases to occur during the pandemic.
“We have a good process where we recognize them early, we move in rapidly with Public Health followup of the contacts and then we're doing testing in both of the schools,” he said.
“It's the way we've been successful so far.”
On Friday, Nova Scotia reported 27 active cases of COVID-19 in the province.
