University student Taylor Roberts might not have got much sleep Friday night.
The third-year Acadia student returned home to New Brunswick from Wolfville, N.S. to isolate with family over the holiday break.
Along with two roommates also from the province, they watched COVID-19 case numbers climb recently.
“I got the message from one of our buddies there that Nova Scotia was going to be closing the borders to New Brunswick,” he says of the new isolation requirement.
“We were kind of prepared for it, but we weren’t really packed for it.”
Nova Scotia announced Friday that anyone entering the province from New Brunswick would need to isolate for two weeks as a result of the surge in COVID-19 cases in the neighbouring province.
The rule came into effect at 8 a.m. Saturday.
So Roberts says he and his roommates hit the road for Acadia at about 4 a.m. to get ahead of the isolation.
“We were pushing it pretty close,” he admits. “We got to the border around 7:30 a.m. and the guy just kind of rolled his eyes and waved us through.”
He says they’re awaiting results of a precautionary COVID-19 test.
StFX University in Antigonish, N.S., says despite the change in rules, it was ready because it was already expecting students returning from outside Atlantic Canada to have to isolate.
In-person classes have been bumped back to Jan. 25 to allow for the isolation period. Until then, winter semester classes are going online.
“We have established a solid check-in program,” says Elizabeth Yeo, the vice president of students for StFX.
“Each student in residence has an assigned person who checks in with them daily, we have sessions with a mental health practitioner; it’s called ‘Check up from the neck up.'”
UNB student David McPartland is currently on a co-op in the Halifax area. He too returned home for a few days during the holiday break.
“It was me, my brother, my mom and my dad,” he said. “We just isolated for three days, played board games, watched movies, TV shows, and then went back up to Halifax on the 27th.”
That means McPartland avoided any isolation requirments on the return to Nova Scotia because he came back well ahead of the tightened border announcement.
Regardless, the students are eager to get back to work — marking the start of a winter semester like no other.
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