Thread by @WilsonKM2

Today in the #AtlanticBubble

We are in the 2nd wave.

There were 29 new cases in the Bubble today: 3 in Newfoundland and Labrador, 12 in New Brunswick, and 14 in Nova Scotia.

There are now 249 known, active cases in the Bubble, the most since 08MAY2020.

There was no change in status in PEI today, so they have 2 known, active cases.

The 3 new cases in NFLD are each in different parts of Newfoundland (the island). Two were travel-related (one from Nova Scotia and one international). One was a close contact of an existing case.

There are now 28 known, active cases in NFLD.

There 12 new cases in NB were primarily centered in the Saint John area (8), with an additional 3 being reported in the Fredericton area, and 1 in Moncton.

There are now 105 known, active cases in NB, the highest it's been since the start of the pandemic.

NB announced several policy changes today:

1) The Fredericton region will move to the Orange recover phase, joining Saint John and and Moncton.

2) NB is now requiring quarantine for travelers from NS. I'll discuss this more further down.

Of the 14 new cases in NS, 12 were in the Halifax area, and the remaining two were split between the North and West zones.

NS currently has 114, known active cases.

The Halifax area, the epicenter of the spike in cases in NS in recent weeks, has now closed many high-risk activities in an attempt to halt case growth early.

Pop-up asymptomatic testing in downtown Halifax continues and is proving productive. Yesterday 856 rapid tests were done downtown, which detected 5 asymptomatic cases in the community. In total, NS did 2253 tests yesterday. This easily beats the previous record of 1219.

The big news in the region is the change in quarantine requirements for those traveling to NB. Effective at midnight tonight, you must isolate for 14 days upon entry to NB *from any province*.

Let's get it out of the way: THAT SUCKS.

It's understandable, though. NS is currently dealing with getting the outbreak in Halifax contained, and NB just transitioned it's capital to a higher level of restriction.

Neither side of the border 'needs' additional infections to be seeded through travel, and it wouldn't be surprising if NS reciprocates soon.

There's still time for local outbreaks in the region to be brought under control before the holidays, but it's important to start planning for the worst case scenario: The Bubble provinces remain closed to one another through to the holidays.

A lot of us (myself included) have family on the other side of those borders that we want to see. How do we make this work?

If you're planning on isolating with your family, remember that they should be isolating too.

If your family contains some high-risk members or they can't isolate with you, you should isolate somewhere else. This has other complications you need to think about.

If you're isolating somewhere else (with friends, a hotel or airbnb), then you need to think about timing. To be out of quarantine by (say 23DEC2020) to enjoy the holidays with your family, you have to start quarantine by 09DEC2020.

Just something to start planning out.

If you're quarantining somewhere with a per-night expense, think about sharing the place with others in the same situation to cut down on costs. If you all enter quarantine at the same time, you can leave at the same time.

Of course, there's still some hope that the border will open, but there are time constraints on these choices, and it's important to start planning out what you're going to do.

Anyways, have a great rest of the night!