Nova Scotia is ready to deal with a second wave of COVID-19 should a resurgence occur, the province’s chief medical officer of health told a legislature committee on Tuesday.
Dr. Robert Strang told the health committee that any future response would also include lessons learned from an outbreak that claimed 53 lives at the Northwood long-term care facility in Halifax this spring. Nova Scotia has seen 65 deaths overall.
“Look across the country, there’s no doubt that COVID has highlighted long-term care as an issue,” Strang said.
The province is conducting a review into the Northwood outbreak along with another looking broadly at infection control in the long-term care sector.
Strang said work is ongoing to ensure strengthened plans are in place at individual long-term care facilities in the event of another outbreak.
Deputy health minister Dr. Kevin Orrell, said the two reviews are on course to be ready with recommendations by Sept. 15.
In response to a question from NDP committee member Susan LeBlanc, Orrell said an increase to operational funding is under consideration. He pointed out that money has not been an issue since the beginning of the pandemic.
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“We are $368 million in deficit at the Department of Health and Wellness, and we still will do what we have to do for the people of Nova Scotia and for the vulnerable people in these nursing homes,” Orrell said.
But LeBlanc says the province is not doing enough to address issues in long-term care, and took issue with some of the responses to her questions, particularly one comment from Orrell.
“So long-term care in Canada, the standard of care is such that without a pandemic we probably would have gotten by for you know, hundreds of years as it was,” he told the committee.
LeBlanc says this type of response shows a disconnect with the reality of the situation.
“We know that longterm care facilities are very short-staffed, that folks that work in the facilities are underpaid. The starting wage for a CCA is not even a living wage in Nova Scotia, there’s all kinds of issues,” she said after the meeting on Tuesday.
Orrell was also questioned by Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston about the resumption of non-emergency health procedures and tests that were put on hold on March 17 to free up hospital beds.
The deputy minister said procedure rebookings are underway, although a backlog remains. Orrell said hospital admissions across the province have also ramped up to a range of between 90 to 100 per cent of capacity.
“In fact, that’s probably more than we would like because we still have to maintain capacity for the next wave, so there has to be some adjustment of that.”
But Houston says he is disappointed with the lack of urgency to take care of the backlog. He questioned Orrell about if the Minister of Health is inquiring about the specific backlogs that exist. While Orrell said that the minister is aware of backlog issues, he has not inquired about wait times for any specific procedures.
“I didn’t get a sense today that there was a good sense of urgency from the Minister directly on clearing that backlog, so that’s a disappointment to me,” Houston told reporters following the meeting.
Nova Scotia currently has three active cases of COVID-19 and Strang said measures currently in place around border entry, the mandatory use of masks in most indoor areas, and the required testing of students returning to universities and colleges has the province “well-positioned for what’s to come.”
He also credited the response of the public, who he said acted quickly to comply with the measures taken by health officials.
“All-in-all Nova Scotia has fared well,” Strang said. “What got us through the first wave – strong preparation and a commitment to keeping cases low – will get us through the second wave.”
So far, Nova Scotia has had 1,086 positive COVID-19 cases with 1,018 cases now resolved. No one is currently in hospital.
Strang said testing capacity had increased since the onset of the pandemic from less than 200 a day to 1,500 a day.
“At our peak of new cases we were testing more people per capita than any other province,” he said.
To date, Nova Scotia has had 80,682 negative test results.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2020.
With files from Global News’ Alicia Draus
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