Nova Scotia reports no new COVID-19 cases for 10 straight days

Nova Scotia is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 for the 10th straight day.

No new cases of the virus were identified among 962 tests completed at the province's labs on Wednesday, according to a news release from the Department of Health and Wellness.

One known active case remains in the province, and no one with the virus is in hospital.

On Tuesday, the province announced hospital inpatients will be allowed to have two support people or family caregivers visit at the same time. That comes into effect today.

McNeil says spikes elsewhere a concern

While Atlantic Canada continues to have low case numbers, other provinces are seeing spikes, including in Ontario, Alberta and Quebec. That will have an effect on when Nova Scotia looks at raising the 14-day quarantine requirement for anyone arriving from outside Atlantic Canada, said Premier Stephen McNeil.

"It's certainly not making it easy," he told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The premier said part of the consideration before lifting the requirement is how to track people as they enter Nova Scotia.

Although he's not ready to do it yet, McNeil said he is mindful of the affect the requirement is having on some businesses, particularly hotels in the downtown Halifax area, which have been without business travelers and convention activity since March.

"I think the bigger question will be, as we work our way through this, what does the new normal look like for business travel? Are businesses now going to have less mobility of their staff and do more remote work?"

Symptoms

So far, Nova Scotia has had 85,288 negative test results, 1,086 positive COVID-19 cases and 65 deaths.

The latest numbers from around the Atlantic bubble are:

• New Brunswick reported no new cases on Wednesday and had three active cases.
• Newfoundland and Labrador reported no new cases Wednesday and had one active case.
• P.E.I. reported Tuesday it had one active case.

Anyone with one of the following symptoms of COVID-19 should go to this website to see if they should call 811 for further assessment:

• Fever.
• Cough or worsening of a previous cough.

Anyone with two or more of the following symptoms is also asked to visit the 811 website:

• Sore throat.
• Headache.
• Shortness of breath.
• Runny nose.