Strankin—premier Iain Rankin, left, and public health supremo Robert Strang—at their Friday, March 19 briefing. COMMUNICATIONS NOVA SCOTIA
Atlantic Bubble and vaccine rollout both expanding
The plan is for open east coast travel April 19 and a fully vaccinated Nova Scotia mid-June.
By Victoria Walton @victorialwaltonAfter the provincial legislature’s session on Thursday, Iain Rankin told reporters that the Atlantic Bubble was indeed in the works. And not just a Maritime Bubble like he’d indicated last week, but a full-on bubble including Newfoundland. “Their cases have come down over time, and now they're down where New Brunswick is,” Rankin said.
This info came out yesterday in a release from the Council of Atlantic Premiers, but the news really took center stage today at Strankin’s twice-weekly COVID-19 press conference, with the bubble set to open within the month. “The Atlantic Bubble will be coming back by April 19, provided the epidemiology is good and public health in each province supports it,” Rankin said in his opening remarks. A phone call between the four Atlantic region premiers on Wednesday proved fruitful, Rankin said, with all provinces having fewer than 50 active cases (New Brunswick currently has the most, at 48, while PEI has the fewest at 4).
Related Strankin hints at the return of the Maritime Bubble: As of now, Newfoundland will be on the outs.
“This is important for families and for the economy and tourism industries of all four of our provinces,” said Rankin. “Allowing the safe increase in visitors to Nova Scotia will significantly benefit our tourism industry and local businesses.”
Rankin also surprised New Brunswickers by inviting them into the bubble early–tomorrow at 8am, in fact. “We continue to have low case numbers in our province and we know that restrictions have been difficult for people and businesses in our Amherst border communities,” he said of the change. But as of publication time, New Brunswick is still requiring Nova Scotian visitors to self-isolate for 14 days.
Head public health doc Robert Strang made sure to say the bubble isn’t set in stone, and could change if cases spike in the coming weeks. “We cannot forget that things can change quickly,” he said at the Friday briefing.
Strang also announced that other restrictions in HRM are reverting back to what they were before the most recent circuit breaker. But he didn’t hesitate to say that those would be walked back if cases spike, too: “We’ve done it before and if we need to, we’ll do it again,” he said.
One thing aiming to keep those cases low is the expansion of vaccine clinics. Starting Monday, March 22, the remaining over-80 cohort (September to December) will be able to book their vaccines. Just yesterday the province announced Nova Scotia’s first C19 death in more than half a year, a woman in her 80s.
Also yesterday, the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout expanded. Now Nova Scotians ages 60, 61 and 62 can register for an AZ vaccine, joining the 63- and 64-year-olds who got first access to the initial batch of 13,000 shots.
“The key reason we’re opening up to 60 to 64, is ‘cause we need those clinics to be at 100 percent, we don’t want vaccine sitting there unused,” said Strang.
Related How to sign up for your COVID-19 vaccine: Whether it’s almost your turn or you’re helping an elderly relative sign up, here are the 5 things you need to know.
Most of those appointments have already been booked up, but Strang said there were clinics this morning in rural Nova Scotia with less than 25 percent of available appointments booked. “If you’re eligible and you haven’t booked yet, please do so,” he said.
Next week, the province is expecting to receive almost 50,000 vaccines, between Moderna and Pfizer. Strang said this allotment from the federal government is on track, but future shipments beyond two weeks are not guaranteed.
“Focusing on an age-based approach, very soon in the next few weeks we’re going to have a very rapid trajectory of rapidly adding decreasing age cohorts” he said. “The process we’ve chosen will get us to middle of June for all Nova Scotians, and by end of May for people down to about age 30.”
The province says extensive details on the vaccine rollout will be revealed at a technical briefing on Tuesday.
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