As of 8am Saturday morning, the requirement to self isolate for 14 days after entering Nova Scotia from New Brunswick has been lifted. Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin and Chief Medical Officer Robert Strang made the announcement at a briefing on Friday.
“We look forward to reopening the entire Atlantic bubble but in the meantime, with case numbers declining, we are comfortable opening the New Brunswick border,” said Rankin. “We know many businesses and families need to cross this border frequently and we don’t want to delay their return to normal travel routines.”
Meanwhile the New Brunswick government is sticking to its previously announced plan to lift self-isolation requirements within the Atlantic provinces on April 19, just over four weeks away.
But that “may change at any time”, according to an emailed statement from health department spokesperson Bruce Macfarlane:
“We have announced that no later than April 19th we will be reopening the Atlantic bubble, conditional upon COVID-19 case numbers remaining low, containing outbreaks, and advice from public health,” wrote MacFarlane on Friday. His statement continues:
Currently, anyone entering the province will be required to self-isolate for 14 days, including New Brunswickers returning from Nova Scotia.
Public Health will continue to monitor the situation in New Brunswick. The decision to ease travel restrictions will continue to be closely monitored and may change at any time, based on public health advice.
“NO REASON TO WAIT,” SAYS RANKIN
Rankin said that similar epidemiology between the two provinces was behind Nova Scotia’s decision.
“New Brunswick is doing very well,” said Rankin Friday. “When you look at our epidemiology. There are virtually no differences in our two provinces.”
Rankin said the decision will bring the rules for New Brunswick in line with those for PEI.
“We’ve been talking about this for a number of days. And when I broached the topic with my colleagues in other provinces, it became a discussion about what an Atlantic bubble would look like,” said Rankin. “So we’re looking at that in April. But if we have comfort in our province, for New Brunswick as we do for PEI, there’s no reason to wait.”
When asked about whether New Brunswick might be considering a similar path, Dr. Robert Strang said he hoped so, but the decision was ultimately not his.
“I don’t know what decisions New Brunswick is making. I would hope that New Brunswick could look at… we have comparable epidemiology, the risks of COVID are very similar in both provinces. But that’s a decision ultimately by the New Brunswick government,” said Strang.
New Brunswick left the Atlantic Bubble on November 26, 2020. If the border restrictions remain in place until April 19, they will have been in place for nearly five months, or 144 days.
Nova Scotia left the Bubble with New Brunswick on January 9, 2021. When the restrictions ended today, March 20, they had been in effect for just under two and a half months, or 70 days.
About two weeks ago, Aulac resident Beth Scammell started a petition asking for the immediate end to border restrictions, saying that residents of Cumberland and Westmorland Counties have suffered financially, mentally, and emotionally from the border restrictions. Just over 1500 people have signed the petition as of Saturday morning.
READ MORE ABOUT SCAMMELL’S PETITION HERE:
Scammell, for her part, says she is disappointed in the month long wait announced for the full return of the Atlantic Bubble. “We still need to wait a month to see the people we love,” she says. Nova Scotia’s decision just added to confusion, she says, “another change in a long year of ups downs.”
In an interview earlier this week, Scammell said she didn’t object to border restrictions at other points in the pandemic, even though they still affected her significantly.
“We were okay with public health measures and closing the border and abiding by those,” she said. “But right now, it’s gotten to a point where I think a lot of us are saying, why now? Why the continued closure? We’re looking at a bigger picture and saying this needs to end.”
Premier Iain Rankin seemed to echo the sentiment of Scammell’s petition on Friday as he explained the decision to lift restrictions in Nova Scotia:
“There’s no point in making our people, our families wait, when we have the evidence to show that we can open up now,” said Rankin.
