New COVID-19 cases dropping, but Strang says it's too early to ease restrictions

Nova Scotia is flattening the curve of COVID-19 cases, but not enough to reopen restaurants, take down the tape blocking parks or ease the other restrictions Nova Scotians have been living under, according to the province's chief medical officer of health.

"On the epidemiologic curve we are past the peak and we're down the downward slope," Dr. Robert Strang told CBC's Information Morning on Tuesday. 

"We are certainly on the decline, but we still have this concern about these little community clusters that we have to follow. We certainly have lots of potential for the transmission of virus." 

On Monday, there were 27 new confirmed cases of the virus in the province but no new deaths. Twenty-six of those cases were in the Halifax region.

While the numbers of new cases are going down, Strang is concerned there are still new cases in the province every day. 

"We're not out of the woods yet, and it would be premature for us to think about lifting restrictions in any substantive way," he said. 

There would need to be a "minimal number" of new cases before life can start to get back to normal in the province. But Strang admits the provincial government has not decided what that minimal number might be.

Even without that number, Strang said there will be clear signs of when to ease the rules. 

"Have you reached the bottom of the reduction and just seeing sporadic occasional cases? And we're certainly not seeing that, especially in the HRM area yet." 
   
Strang said it's expected there would be more cases in the Halifax region since that's where the bulk of the province's population lives, there are more people living in multi-unit dwellings and there are more chances for people to interact. 

Even though there are far fewer cases of COVID-19 in the rest of the province, Strang said there will be no break in the restrictions anywhere. The northern zone of the Nova Scotia Health Authority, for example, only has 39 confirmed cases, while the central zone that includes Halifax has 757.

Strang said the big risk with softening the rules in one area and not another is that people would likely drive to the place with fewer restrictions, especially if there was more freedom of movement or better shopping in a particular area.  

"Then you run the risk of taking the virus from one part of the province to another," said Strang. 

Instead, the province will look at relaxing limitations slowly, sector by sector. Strang said that might first mean lifting rules on what people can do outdoors, then open some businesses. However, physical distancing and frequent handwashing would have to continue for a long time.

In total, the province has reported 900 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and there have been 24 deaths caused by the virus.