Nova Scotia chief medical health officer Dr. Robert Strang said he and his team are working on
Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer of Health (Government of Nova Scotia photo)
a COVID-19 vaccine roll out plan. He said it’s up to each province, with guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, to determine how the vaccine plan will work. NACI’s listed priority groups are long term care homes residents and staff, front-line health care workers, and older adults.
During the COVID-19 update today, Dr. Robert Strang said they are expecting the first allotment of vaccines to start in January along with a small initial amount in mid-December.
Strang said there is a lot of preliminary work to complete by January. With the federal government stating they will be able to vaccinate everyone who wants to be vaccinated in 2021, Strang said the planning in Nova Scotia is built along that expectation. He said is team working with Ottawa colleagues to make sure they can accept the first doses as soon as it becomes available. The federal government recently stated people can expect the first of the vaccines to be approved by Health Canada as early as next week.
Premier Stephen McNeil
Premier Stephen McNeil thanked school administrators, teachers, parents, and staff for their cooperation in dealing with COVID-19 cases in Nova Scotia Schools.
Citadel High School and Park West School, both of which are in the central health zone, reported one case each yesterday and today, respectively.
McNeil also offered a shout out to cleaning staff for their work in keeping schools safe, and thanked all staff in labs and cleaning centres, and testing site volunteers.
Over the last 2 weeks, the province conducted 7000 rapid tests and caught 22 potential cases in asymptomatic people.