COVID-19 Pandemic

With COVID-19 Tamped Down, Christmas Looks Up in Atlantic Canada

By Jay Heisler
December 20, 2020 02:45 AM

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA - A brief surge of coronavirus infections in Atlantic Canada – one of the least-affected places on Earth – has been tamped down just in time for residents to enjoy something resembling a normal Christmas. But most say they will continue to observe the social distancing and other measures that have helped to keep the pandemic at bay.

“We are heading into the holiday season with very low active cases of COVID-19 in our province because Nova Scotians have worked hard to follow the protocols and slow the spread of the virus,” said Premier Stephen McNeil of Nova Scotia, the most populous of the region’s four provinces with a little under 1 million residents. ... “The people of our province will still be able to get together with family,” McNeil told VOA. “It will just have to be in a smaller group.”

American media took note earlier this fall of the “Atlantic Bubble,” a large region just a few hundred kilometers from New York City where cases of the world-spanning viral disease were so low that new cases could be counted on the fingers of one hand. ... Free movement was permitted within the region comprising Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, while outsiders – even from other parts of Canada – could not visit without submitting to a two-week quarantine.

Within weeks of that wave of publicity, the tranquility was shattered by an outbreak of new cases that, while still small by global standards, set off alarms. The free travel zone was temporarily disbanded, and Nova Scotia – with fewer than 200 total cases – declared a limited lockdown with an end to indoor dining and gyms. ... The measures proved effective, and a week before Christmas, the total number of active cases in Nova Scotia is down to 50 with nobody hospitalized. The province reported just six new cases on Wednesday.

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