HALIFAX: The chief medical officer of health for N.S. said public health is looking at a way to do a careful risk assessed reopening for small businesses, like pubs, bars, and restaurants.
Dr. Robert Strang was responding to a question asked by The Laker News, reiterating a bit of what had been said previously in press conferences held before the Christmas break. It was a question poised to The Laker on twitter over the weekend.
“We’re actively looking at that,” said Dr. Strang during the Dec. 29 briefing. “We’re being very cautious, keeping things closed down as we get past New Years, and then we’ll be looking at the week of Jan. 4 we’ll look at what our epidemiology showing us.”
He said what they don’t want to see is a spike in cases.
Dr. Strang said based on the epidemiology they see that will determine what direction they move too.
“We’ll start to look at is it possible to start to loosen up some of the restrictions that have been in place,” he said. “My hope is that we can, but I’m not going to get out ahead of myself before we have the epidemiology in front of us.”
He said at that point he would have a conversation with Premier Stephen McNeil about what they do next.
“I use the word balance a lot,” said Dr. Strang. “It’s always about balancing the necessary COVID restrictions but knowing they all come with their own impacts.
“Our focus still needs to be having the right level of COVID safety. Hopefully, we’re in a place early in the New Year where we can loosen things up a bit, but we must have the right amount of time and get us the information on what the early New Year looks like to see what, if any impacts the holidays have given us.”
