Our epidemiology has changed, and most COVID-19 cases being found in our province now are variant strains.
That according to Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.
He says officials now assume new cases are variant cases, and this has led them to put new masking measures in place.
Dr. Strang says they had already been recommending you wear a mask outdoors when physical distancing was difficult.
“We’re now just making, in some of those outdoor areas where physical distancing cannot be reliably maintained, we’re now making the wearing of masks mandatory,” he says. “The increasing amount of variant, and the increasing knowledge about how more transmissible the variant strains are, that we felt it was appropriate to strengthen the outdoor wearing of masking in places where people could be in close contact with each other.”
He says the new rules apply to places like restaurant patios, farmers’ markets, and festivals.
Dr. Strang says masks are the single best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and the variant strains, but they must be worn consistently and properly.
“I still continue to see far too many people not understanding that their nose in connected to the back of their throat,” he says. “That somehow they don’t need to wear a mask over their nose, and other ways masking is not being done properly.”
He says there’s been another COVID-19 related death in the province.
The Department of Health and Wellness reported a Central Zone woman, over 80 years old, has died.
Both Premier Iain Rankin and Dr. Strang offered their condolences during Friday’s COVID-19 briefing.
Officials say 67 people have now died from COVID-19 related causes.
Dr. Strang also reported six new cases. Two in Eastern Zone and one in Western Zone, all travel related, as well as three in Central Zone, two travel related and one a close contact of a previously reported case.
