New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said at a news conference on Tuesday that he would like to expand the Atlantic bubble to residents in Quebec’s Gaspé region before the end of week.
On July 3, Canada’s four Atlantic provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, opened their borders and created a bubble so that residents could travel throughout the provinces without being required to self isolate.
“Nova Scotians and Atlantic Canadians have worked hard to flatten the curve and we’re now in a place where we can ease restrictions within our region,” Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said at the time.
The Gaspé region is in the eastern part of Quebec, and sits just north of New Brunswick, and according to the Quebec government, the Gaspé-Magdalen Islands region has had 193 cases of COVID-19.
There was a possibility that the Atlantic bubble would open up to the rest of Canada on July 17, however Higgs said that opening to the rest of the country should be pushed back.
“I have some apprehensions right now in relation to opening up our border,” Higgs said.
In a news conference on Wednesday, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball said that there’s been no firm decision that has been made in regards to opening the bubble or easing travel restrictions.
“Same as the decision that we made to ease travel restrictions in Atlantic Canada, any further broader movement to any other Canadian jurisdictions or easing of travel restrictions for Newfoundland and Labrador will be determined, guided by work with our public health officials, the experts that we have and of course, our chief medical health officer,” Ball said.
A spokesperson for the Nova Scotia government said that any decision about potentially expanding the region bubble to include other residents of Canadian provinces and territories will be based on their experience with COVID-19 in the coming days and weeks, as well as the epidemiology at the time,
“When a decision is made it will be communicated publicly, as has been our process throughout the COVID pandemic,” the spokesperson said.
With files from CBC News, Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon and Radio Canada International
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