Nova Scotia reports 32 new COVID-19 cases; total has nearly doubled in last week

By Canadian Press

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia reported 32 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday for a total of 342 confirmed cases, a number that has nearly doubled in the last week.

On April 1, the province reported 173 confirmed cases.

The province’s new cases were well out in front of the single-digit increases reported in the three other Atlantic provinces, a trend that was due to two factors, according to Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health.

“We have to be cognizant that we may be having more disease activity, but also the number of positives you see actually is very dependent on your testing strategy,” he said. “I firmly believe that we have a kind of gold standard of a testing strategy.”

Strang said the province has lab capacity, has opened up access to testing and is aggressively looking for the virus within communities.

Public health said Wednesday that the QEII Health Sciences Centre’s microbiology lab in Halifax had completed more than 700 tests on Tuesday and is now operating on a 24-hour-a-day basis. To date, the province has had 11,346 negative test results.

Nova Scotia also announced that it had expanded the list of symptoms being screened to include sore throat and runny nose as well as fever, new or worsening cough or headache.

“We are probably going to have a lots of people that come forward with a runny nose and a headache and we are going to be testing them,” said Strang. “In normal times we would probably just say you have a cold.”

He said many of the new positives are contacts of cases who were identified early and are people who immediately self-isolated and would not be spreading the virus within the community.

Meanwhile, the Halifax Regional Municipality said Wednesday it had been advised that a city transit bus driver had tested positive for COVID-19.

In Prince Edward Island, health officials reported three new cases of COVID-19, including its first case linked to interprovincial travel involving a man in his 50s.

The new cases raised the province’s total to 25.

It was the first increase in six days, and the Island’s chief public health officer expressed relief at the numbers, saying it was an indication there is no widespread community transmission in the province.

“We are doing many things that we should do, but we know it is extremely important that we continue to do them,” said Dr. Heather Morrison. “As I’ve said before, we’re not out of the woods yet.”

There were three new cases of COVID-19 in New Brunswick on Wednesday, bringing the provincial total to 108.

Premier Blaine Higgs was asked about a recent drop in the number of new cases in his province.

“Our numbers may not feel like they have increased that quickly,” said Higgs. “You might think that we have this handled, but now is not the time for complacency. We must stay strong, stay focused and stay home.”

He pointed out the province was aware of two ATV rallies planned for the upcoming Easter Weekend, and warned they would be a mistake.

“A rally exposes you to friends and neighbours unnecessarily,” Higgs said. “These are not normal circumstances.”

Newfoundland and Labrador reported four new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Wednesday.

The new cases in the Eastern Health and Central Health regions brought the provincial total of confirmed cases to 232.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2020.

— With files from Kevin Bissett in Fredericton and Holly McKenzie-Sutter in St. John’s, N.L.

Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press

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