Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang announced the new case discovered Monday in the Central zone is a home care nurse who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 several months ago but had recovered.
“We are working with our local lab and the national lab to determine whether this is a true case of reinfection or not,” said Strang.
He says if this is determined to be a recurring case of infection it could mean the understanding of COVID-19 may have to change.
“The implications of reinfection are making it more likely that we can’t count on a one-time infection producing lifelong immunity,” said Strang. “That’s actually not a surprise for us. Most respiratory viruses act like this.”
Strang says the worker wore all the recommended protective equipment and public health is following up with all the clients they visited, and as a precaution, they are treating this as a new case of COVID-19.
Nova Scotia has had 1,086 positive COVID-19 cases and 65 deaths, so far, and as of Wednesday, Sept. 9, there are three active cases of COVID-19 in the province.
No new cases were identified Tuesday.
Despite the province welcoming roughly 3,200 students to university and post-secondary schools over the past few weeks, only three new cases have been discovered from that group.
Those are numbers Dr. Strang finds reassuring.
“It’s good news in two ways,” said Strang. “It shows that the risk from students is relatively low. But it also shows that our strategy has worked because we had three individuals who, without the measures in place, could well have been following a normal student life and having much more significant potential exposures here in Nova Scotia.”
The province has cut the list of symptoms it will consider when looking for COVID-19.
Public health wants Nova Scotians to call 8-1-1 if they have a fever or a new or worsening cough or if they display two or more of sore throat, runny nose/ nasal congestion, headache or shortness of breath.
Dr. Strang says based on what they’ve seen of how people experience COVID-19, the previous list was unnecessarily long.
“We had a lot of issues about kids in daycare through the summer with a runny nose, which at the time, qualified for a test,” said Strang. “As we look at it, we realized, just a runny nose isn’t how COVID presents.”
Dr. Strang cautions Nova Scotians that there are many unknown questions around immunity to COVID-19 including how effective a vaccine could be and how long it may last.
“All of which leads us to the point that we need to continue to respect COVID-19 and focus on the interventions we know that do work, which are the low-tech public interventions that we talk about at every briefing,” said Strang.
Those measures include frequent hand washing, wearing a mask and social distancing. A complete list of symptoms, direction on when to be tested and how to self isolate are located on the Nova Scotia government's coronavirus page.
Reported by Ed Halverson
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson