Plans to reopen a “travel buble” between Canada’s Atlantic provinces on April 19 looked increasingly precarious on Tuesday amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases and, in particular, variants of concern across the country.
Premiers of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador were expected to discuss the issue on Tuesday evening.
“The landscape is very different today than it was four weeks ago,” said P.E.I Premier Dennis King, speaking at the regular provincial pandemic briefing earlier in the day.
“Things aren’t going our way. The situation is difficult and I would say that the Atlantic bubble opening on April 19 would be precarious.”
Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin said his government is reintroducing border restrictions for people crossing from New Brunswick to Nova Scotia, due to rising case counts in New Brunswick.
Effective Thursday at 8 a.m. AT, travellers from New Brunswick or Nova Scotians returning home from that province will once again have to self-isolate for 14 days after they enter Nova Scotia.
“This is tough, I know, but it’s necessary given what we are seeing across the border and in several other provinces where the cases are increasing rapidly because of the presence of variants,” Rankin said.
“This is what we want to avoid here — an outbreak resulting from the more contagious spread.”
As of Tuesday, New Brunswick had 145 active cases and there were 45 active cases in Nova Scotia, including six new ones. Prince Edward Island has six active cases, and Newfoundland and Labrador added one new case for a total of 11 active cases.
‘Extremely serious’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 13, 2021. (Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Canadians on Tuesday that the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic in the country “remains extremely serious” as the number of infections continues to rise despite efforts to ramp up vaccinations.
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said over one million cases of COVID-19, including over 23,350 deaths have been reported in Canada so far.
“Over the past week, there has been a 33-per-cent rise in daily case counts with an average of almost 8,100 new cases reported daily,” Tam said.
“During the same time, the number of people experiencing severe and critical illness continues to rise; on average over 3,000 people with COVID-19 were being treated in our hospitals each day representing a 29-per-cent increase over last week.”
There are almost 36,000 variant of concern cases reported to date across Canada, with the B.1.1.7 variant first reported in the U.K. accounting for over 96 per cent of these, Tam said. There are 1,222 P.1 variants first reported in Brazil, and 365 B.1.351 variants originating from South Africa reported to date in Canada.
With files from Kevin Yarr of CBC News
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