Public health officials are warning Nova Scotians not to think we’re out of the woods with the pandemic.

The province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang says people are becoming complacent around social distancing and other measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Even though we talk about a pandemic, we’re acting like we’re not in a pandemic in Nova Scotia. That’s important that we remind ourselves we need to be cautious. I recognize that COVID fatigue is real,” said Strang. “We’ve been at this for almost a year but as tired as everyone is, public health measures are as important now as they were last March and April.”

Three new cases of the coronavirus are being reported bringing the total number of active cases to 21.

Strang cautioned people to keep their socializing and social circles to a minimum.

“We need people to slow down for the next two to three months,” said Strang. “We need to still stay very focused on limiting our social activities, limiting the number of people, ideally [to] only a single social group of 10.”

Strang says the province expects to receive 14,700 doses of vaccine this week and vaccine deliveries are back on track to meet targets that were expected when deliveries were first announced.

“Vaccine supply is expected to be steady with weekly shipments of at least 10,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine until the end of March,” said Strang. “Meaning that we are on target to meet the outcomes for the first 90 days of our vaccine strategy.”

Strang says he’s heard requests for Nova Scotia to develop a vaccine passport to allow those that have been inoculated to be exempt from some of the COVID-19 protocols. He says the province will not be issuing proof of immunization cards or vaccine passports until more is known about the effectiveness of the vaccines.

“We know that they’re very effective against preventing clinical and symptomatic illness but we don’t know yet whether they prevent asymptomatic transmission.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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