Talk of a fourth wave, spike in N.B., causes concern in N.S.

HALIFAX -

After going through historic lows because of the pandemic, the Halifax Stanfield International Airport is finally seeing an increase in activity.

"At our lowest point, we were only connected to four destinations with about nine flights a day and today we're up to 16 destinations and right now we're seeing about 60 flights a day," said Leah Batstone, spokesperson with the Halifax Airport Authority.

Fully vaccinated travellers from the United States are now welcome to enter Canada but right now there are no U.S. flights serving the Halifax airport.

"We expect to have some U.S. destinations starting up later in the fall," said Batstone.

New Brunswick lifted all pandemic restrictions 10 days ago. There are currently 66 active cases in the province, 48 of them are in the Moncton area.

"There's talk about a fourth wave and that's concerning to me so therefore their lifting the restrictions in New Brunswick is not to me, it's not what it should be," said Gisele Emond.

"We have children in Moncton so that is kind of touchy for us. We're wondering now can we still go, what's going to happen," said Denis Emond.

With the increase in infections in New Brunswick and more travellers coming in, some are concerned Nova Scotia could be vulnerable.

"If we have people coming to the province who haven't got themselves vaccinated or haven't got themselves tested before they come in certainly that's going to make a difference to us because it only takes one person to bring it in," said John Attersley.

"I feel like if people are getting like their vaccines it's less of a worry you know but with the Delta variant and all that you never know it could just make a fourth wave," said Jessica Manson.

Although there are just 16 active COVID cases in Nova Scotia, public health measures are still in place across the province.

Over the weekend, Halifax Regional Police fined a man $2,400 after they broke up a gathering that exceeded the gathering limit under the public health order.

"We are still seeing people call in regards to gathering limits, masks, self-isolation. We are still getting those calls," said Const. Alicia Joseph.

In order to move into the fifth phase of Nova Scotia's reopening plan, 75 per cent of the province needs to be fully vaccinated. Public Health says there are about 26,000 appointments booked after Sept. 1 that could be moved up into August.