The orange zone brings a series of changes, including the closure of some businesses, such as all close contact personal services lke barbers, hair stylists or spas. Gyms and fitness centres are closed, as are cinemas, bingo halls, and large live performance venues.
Most other businesses, included restaurants, are allowed to stay open under their COVID-19 operational plans.
The orange phase also means the return of the two-household bubble, though this around, that may also included formal or informal caregivers and immediate family.
One of the bigger changes comes with mask use.
On Thursday, the province announced a new mandatory indoor public space mask rule similar to that in place in Nova Scotia. The rule came into effect Friday, October 9th, the same day that the province announced Zone 1 and Zone 5 would move into orange level restrictions.
The orange level in the Tantramar area (and the rest of Zone 1 and Zone 5) means that masks are now required in all public spaces, indoors or outdoors.
There has been some confusion over what qualifies as an outdoor public space.
Russell said Monday that “anywhere the public may congregate other than the yard of a private single dwelling residence,” is considered an outdoor public space. “This includes parks, playgrounds, markets, dog parks, etc.”
Russell added that when walking with members of your bubble in areas that are not crowded, such as trails or beaches, masks are not required.
But, she said, if in doubt, wear a mask.
In schools, children up to and including grade 8 will now be required to wear masks at all times unless eating, doing physical activity, or working quietly at their desks. High school students are required to wear masks at all times except when eating or doing physical activity.
Students of all ages and grades are required to wear masks on the school bus, even if they are sitting alone or with a family member.
Russell explained that additional precaution is in place in order to aggressively contain the possible spread of the current outbreaks.
“When phase orange is in place in a zone, we’re really trying to to contain things very, very aggressively,” she said. “If you’re going to shut down businesses, if there’s any way that you can make sure that there is very little risk in terms of continuing to be able to contain the virus, then we will be trying to take those steps,” she said.
“Having people mask indoors and outdoors, then that means it’s continuous,” she said. “Everybody’s protecting each other.”
“We’re just in the containment phase,” said Russell, “where we just want to be as aggressive as we can to get things under control as soon as possible, with the fewest number of people affected, for the shortest length of time.”
