Two new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the province, the same day masks become mandatory in most indoor public spaces.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Doctor Robert Strang says the central zone cases are travel related, but show the pandemic isn’t over.
Doctor Strang says we could be looking at a second wave soon, so now is the time to change the norm around masks.
“Behaviour change doesn’t happen overnight,” he says. “It’ll take some time to get to the place where as many Nova Scotians as possible are wearing masks.”
He says that’s why getting people used to masks is now important.
Doctor Strang says he doesn’t want to wait until they start to see COVID-19 return to implement a mask policy.
“Cause it’s going to take several weeks to get the maximum impact of that, so we’ve backed it up to say, ‘lets do it now,’” he says. “As the risk starts to increase, we’re increasing the protection that we’re collectively getting by more and more people wearing masks.”
Strang issued an exposure warning related to Friday’s cases; on Air Canada flight AC 626 from Toronto to Halifax on July 19.
He says anyone who was on that plane should call 811.
