N.S. experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases

I'm joined Now by infectious diseases expert Dr Lisa Barrett so what do you make of the jump in covid cases in the most recent update what do you think of that yeah totally expected we did see this last year end of August beginning of September when people were heading back to class and getting together more we think inside uh and so that happened last year going to happen this year is already happening maybe a little earlier this year than we had expected and if things follow last year we'll have this bump in September and again in November December so totally expected uh very annoying for those who are getting on well and certainly still uh an important Health Challenge for people who are older or who have a poor immune system to there's that much covid out there well how contagious is this latest variant of the virus I I kind of sound like a broken record on this but it seems like every time I say it's very contagious it is very contagious and that's what viruses do as we build an immune response that pushes the virus to evolve into something that transmits more easily and certainly the in the lab assessments of these viruses do seem to be that they are very very infectious does it matter exactly what the difference is from the last version no chances are if you're in an inside Space with somebody who has Co for you know an hour you're you've got a really good chance of at least getting infected if you're vaccinated hopefully not as sick uh but it is very very contagious well what are the reports of the symptoms are they similar to previous strains of covid seem to be uh not a big difference and certainly not One symptom that would make you say aha I have the new strain of covid um um importantly again some um you know runny nose sore throat sore eyes muscle aches and pains fever um a cough uh and sometimes uh more of a pneumonia for people who may be uh more at risk uh some people have also still mentioned U some diarrhea type symptoms so that is something that can turn up even though we call it a respiratory virus and of course in the older person uh there may also be fatigue lethargy uh meaning no energy and in in some who are quite a bit older uh confusion can happen as well so nothing that's going to point you in one direction or the other necessarily from flu uh versus covid versus this other virus respiratory stitial virus um but certainly if by proportions right now it's mostly covid that's circulating so if you're sick uh there's a good chance you either have a another Corona or common cold virus or Co well should folks think about getting vaccinated now or or should they wait a little further into the fall that's a that's an interesting point the spring campaign of vaccines that continued into um August has now stopped there is a pause at the moment Health Canada had asked uh the provinces to pause and destroy the old xbb vaccines for Co that they had on hand and we do not yet have an approved updated covid vaccine yet and so that means at the moment in most provinces not all but most provinces um if you go looking for a covid vaccine uh you won't find one at the moment um but when they do become available as you might expect um it does look like they are going to provide updated and quite good uh protection against the circulating viruses around at the moment so definitely do consider getting vaccinated when they become available but right now um in most provinces there isn't a covid vaccine that would be available to you at the moment well with School uh back in I wanted to ask you about hooping cough um now being on the rise what do people especially parents need to know about that yeah um so again uh whooping cough you can get it you can be infectious just before your symptoms you get symptoms and eventually over the course of a couple of weeks you get this uh cough that has a a whooping sound to it and the cough can be very very severe um the people who get sickest again are those who are oldest in poorest Health have underlying lung problems or those who are very very young so babies close to birth or um babies without a great immune system or young people like below the age of two um so um if you do have a child or a parent friend family member who has those symptoms do get checked out with your family uh doctor or primary care provider it is a vaccine preventable infection and so it is included in general childhood vaccine so if your child's on a regular vaccine schedule they will get it um if you're you've got a an older parent uh make sure that they're up to dat or a family member who's older make sure they're up to date with their vaccines uh because that is the key part of uh not getting uh pertusus or whooping cough that's the other name all right well Dr Barrett thank you as always we do appreciate it yes and uh hopefully folks out there will keep getting tested and find some covid tests uh in their communities for those especially who are at high risk we do have therapies that they can access and they can still self-report if they can't get to a lab test so make sure you've got some of those uh covid tests on hand for the fall all right sounds good thank you very much thank you