Briefing at 3pm with McNeil & Strang. Live-streamed here: novascotia.ca/stayinformed/w…
These are crazy news times, to put it mildly. I'm committed to doing what I can to keep the Examiner on top of the stories.
Strang: 10 new cases, all travel related or connected to previous cases. Total is now 51.
Strang: I have good news. The lab capacity has doubled, from 200 tests/day to 400 tests/day. So now, we're testing all close contacts of all positives.
Strang: we're also testing all people who are in hospital who might have flu are tested.
Strang: people are not being truthful about their travel history. Don't call 911.
Strang: one person showed up at hospital and lied about travel history. Don't do that.
McNeil: We're increasing 811 capacity. Added 53 nurses, etc, and bringing in more. Doubling phone lines.
McNeil: expanding "virtual care" and increasing cleaners in hospitals by bringing in those in closed clinics.
McNeil: essential services: food chain, financial, transportation, construction, manufacturing. A full list will come soon.
McNeil: thanks bus drivers in particular.
Strang: we think 6-8 weeks, but could be up to 10 weeks, and then future waves after that.
I guess no question will be allowed from me today.
My question would have been about the non-price gouging rule in the emergency management act. By law, prices can't be raised on basically anything, but people are reporting big price increases in food and other goods. Why hasn't the premier spoken against price-gougers?
