***UPDATED 3:35 pm MONDAY
STRICT NEW RULES ON COVID IMPOSED IN NOVA SCOTIA – 15 NEW CASES SINCE LAST WEEK –
STRANG SAYS STRONGER MEASURES ARE NOW “UNDER CONSIDERATION” and SOCIAL BUBBLES NEED TO BE LIMITED TO NO MORE THAN 10 PEOPLE
Medical Health Officer Dr. Robert Strang Nova Scotia is at a “critical tipping point” and says a cluster of COVID-19 in the Clayton Park-Rockingham area likely produced exposures in several business and other public locations across the HRM. The three most serious situations in metro are found on the provincial health website. (SEE LINK BELOW) Strang says the Bitter End (Bar) , Montana’s (Chain Lake Drive) and All Nations Gospel Church (worshipping at St. Andrew’s in Halifax) are all on the high-exposure list on recent dates, and people should be tested in those situations, and not just self-monitor. They’re even fast-tracking people who might have visited one of those locations. Strang says if you didn’t listen to health warnings last week, it’s time to listen this week to keep the COVID situation in this province from spiralling further out of control. Strang says there have been more than two dozen new infections in Nova Scotia since last week, and that’s not acceptable. He says more stringent steps are coming if caseloads continue to climb.
- All of the recent public exposure notices include restaurants, Halifax Transit, flights, sports facilities and stores and can be found here.
PFIZER SAYS ITS CORONAVIRUS VACCINE IS 90% EFFECTIVE – REACTION IS POSITIVE
Canada’s stake in the new Pfizer vaccine against CORONVIRUS that’s getting positive early feedback today is significant. This country has ordered millions of doses from the pharmaceutical giant that’s now been pronounced 90 per cent effective in human trials. Normally, vaccines end up only being 50 to 75 per cent effective. The company’s CEO says it’s the greatest advance for human health in 100 years. The only question epidemiologists still have is “how long will the vaccine last before a person needs to get another shot?”
Despite that lingering question, the stock markets are shooting much higher this afternoon, as the markets react to this news that there’s a vaccine that seems to be working, and it could be available in Canada by next spring.
U-S President elect Joe Biden is congratulating the “brilliant women and men who’ve helped produce this breakthrough,” but he notes that Americans will still have to take major precautions until the vaccine is tested, proven and available next spring. Biden has just named a blue-ribbon panel to work on the coronavirus crisis until that vaccine is widely-available. The U-S is currently averaging more than 100-thousand new COVID-19 cases every day.
BIDEN SEES COUNTERING RECORD U-S COVID CASES AS HIS FIRST PRIORITY IN OVAL OFFICE
COVID is also job #1 for newly-elected American President Joe Biden. He has already named a former surgeon general and a former F-D-A commissioner as co-chairs of a coronavirus working group ready to get started quickly, with other members expected to be announced today. Biden says if he can’t get the killer virus under control, the economic damage will continue.
POLL SHOWS COVID VACCINE IDEA GETTING MORE POPULAR
There’s a new poll out from IPSOS showing 51 per cent of Canadians would take a COVID vaccine when it’s authorized and reviewed by Health Canada. 61 per cent say it should be mandatory to be vaccinated.
CHIEF SACK PRODUCES INDIGENOUS FINANCIAL NUMBERS
The moderate livelihood fishery struggle took another turn over the weekend when Sipekne’katik Chief Mike Sack posted online showing the thousands of dollars Nova Scotia Indigenous chiefs get paid for attending meetings as part of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs.
A document published by Sack on his Facebook page is a breakdown of the $31,182 paid to him by the assembly for attending meetings between April 2018 and February 2020. ON top of that, almost $23,000 was also paid to him by the assembly between March and September of this year for a line item titled “COVID Meetings.” According to Sipekne’katik’s audited financial statements, Sack was paid a salary of more than $70,000 a year when you include his travel expenses. Sipekne’katik’s on-reserve and off-reserve population is less than 2400 people.
Those numbers were sent to Sack when he asked the question …”Where is Sipekne’katik’s portion of the $5 million provided to the Mi’kmaw by Ottawa for negotiating a moderate livelihood fishery?” (FACEBOOK PHOTO, WITH FILES FROM SALTWIRE NEWS)
WORKING FROM HOME GAINING GROUND AS PANDEMIC SURGES
There’s some interesting news coming out of Friday’s jobs survey showing more and more Canadians are working from home each month. The number of people working from their residence grew by 150,000 people in October, and is now up by 2.4 million since the beginning of the pandemic. A separate report from the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce and APEC shows younger Canadians have been disproportionately affected by pandemic layoffs. (Bing Photo)
PICTOU COUNTY MAN ARRESTED IN TRURO ON THE WEEKEND
Truro Police say a Pictou County man was arrested on charges stemming from vehicle break-ins, just off Willow Street, on Roosevelt Avenue over the weekend. Police say a suspicious man was reported looking inside vehicles around 3:30 Saturday morning and they then arrested a 29-year-old man on Roosevelt Avenue. The Pictou County man is facing charges of possession of stolen property and breach of a court order.
PAUSE IN BOAT HAROUR CLEAN-UP – NORTHERN PULP
There’s a delay in Northern Pulp’s clean-up of the effluent treatment facility in Boat Harbour. The discovery of a layer of sludge at the bottom of the harbour is being blamed for delaying the company’s clean-up, which will also mean added work for the province. The pulp mill says an independent assessment during the summer months managed to detect a previously unknown layer of 194,000 cubic metres of sludge at the bottom of the aeration basin. That’s a series of lagoons where mill effluent has been churned for decades. The company says the discovery means the work near the aerators is now expected to start next spring. The mill shut down in January. On paper, the company is insolvent and responsible for removing contaminated sludge that built up around the aerators after it bought out the mill in 1997. Northern Pulp says 81,000 cubic metres were deposited while it was doing business from Abercrombie Point. The provincial government is responsible for removing any sludge that existed before Northern Pulp took over. (Photo by Alan Johnson, Stingray News)
COVID-RELATED REMEMBRANCE DAY CHANGES ACROSS NS AND PICTOU COUNTY
We won’t be able to attend Remembrance Day services across Nova Scotia in person this year. Instead, Legion volunteers are hoping we mark the occasion from home on Wednesday.
You can take part in the two minutes of silence in your home along with the live-stream, at the end of your driveway, or anywhere you happen to be at 11 o’clock on Wednesday. Most of the legions in Pictou County will be live-streaming their services on their Facebook pages.
We’re also being encouraged to buy wreaths, crosses, and poppies from their local legion leading up to Remembrance Day.
And tomorrow (Nov. 10th) the legions are recommending we lay our wreaths and/or crosses at our local cenotaph. The next day, the legions will make sure they are arranged into a nice display.
The Royal Canadian Legion – National Headquarters will Livestream this year’s Remembrance Day ceremony on Nov 11 at 11:45 a.m. AST which will be shared on the Town of New Glasgow’s Facebook page.
One of the exceptions is a brief Remembrance Day Service that will begin at 10:45am Nov 11th at the cenotaph, First Church Hopewell. COVID rules will apply with masks and social distancing.
More details on Remembrance Day for 2020 are available on our events section.
BOSTON CHRISTMAS TREE COMING FROM CAPE BRETON THIS YEAR
The Tree for Boston is being dedicated to frontline health-care workers.
The province says the annual gift will honour people risking their health during the pandemic on both sides of the border, and Boston’s response after the Halifax Explosion in 1917.
This year’s tree will be donated by Heather and Tony Sampson from West Bay, Richmond County.
With COVID-19 still a major worry, there will be no public events to celebrate the Tree for Boston this year, but the tree-lighting will be broadcast on Boston’s ABC affiliate on December 3rd.
GARBAGE HAUL KEEPS NETTING WAY TOO MUCH PLASTIC FROM BAY OF FUNDY BEACHES
A woman who has been collecting garbage along the King’s County shoreline for more than two years says more than 95 per cent of what she collects is plastic. Karen Jenner says she’s collected 14,000 pounds of junk in the past 2-and-a-half years.
Up to four times a week, Jenner brings the garbage she collects back home, sorts it into different categories and takes photos of it for her Facebook page. If you’d like to see how bad the situation is, she invites you to do a facebook search for her page, Nova Scotia Beach Garbage Awareness. (Facebook photo)
TREBEK AND MEEKER PASS AWAY
Some sad entertainment news on the weekend with the passing of Alex Trebek. The Canadian-born host of Jeopardy passed away yesterday morning at home. He’d been publicly battling cancer and was 80 years old when he finally lost that battle yesterday.
Also passing away over the weekend was hockey legend Howie Meeker. Meeker was well-known to Saturday night hockey fans coast to coast and his passion for the game paved the way for a 30-year sports broadcasting career. Howie Meeker died yesterday at the age of 97. (Photo of Meeker and Governor-General David Johnston in 2011, Courtesy, Global News)
ANTI-TRUMP DOUGHNUTS A HIT IN HALIFAX
There’s nothing like mixing fun, politics and helping out immigration. The immigrant owner of Vandal Doughnuts in Halifax has come up with some colourful donut decorations showing Donald Trump crying on one doughnut design, and large letters saying “You’re Fired” on a second one. She auctioned them off yesterday to raise money for immigration services, and the largest doughnut bid came in at $150. (Photo Credit – Global News)
