COVID-19 Roundup: How it spreads, a local author confronts the apocalypse, business chips in
As of March 29, Nova Scotia has 122 confirmed cases of COVID-19. “At this point, public health cannot confirm community spread as several cases are still under investigation,” says the press release. Coast to coast, Canada currently has 6,258 confirmed cases.
Coming home (thanks to the local newspaper)
For many Nova Scotians who were travelling or living abroad when the pandemic hit, just getting home to begin riding out the storm has been an ordeal. Snowbirds John and Bente Sproat were in Florida, where information was vague and contradictory. Calls to their MP went unanswered. Then they called the community newspaper back home in Tatamagouche. “Usually the little local newspaper knows more than anyone else,” says John Sproat. Learn how Raissa Tetanish, editor of The Light, helped them get home.
Stranger than fiction
A few years ago, author and occasional Halifax Magazine contributor Mark Sampson began work on a new post-apocalyptic satire about a world dealing with upheavals that abruptly change how we live, work, and interact. All the Animals on Earth is a sharp, funny, and gloriously strange book. Sampson never imagined people would read it while living through an actual pandemic. “There’s an analogy but it’s up for interpretation,” he says in a recent interview. “It’s like a Rorschach test.”
Find a way to take care of each other
At her New Glasgow foot clinic, Lauralee Pentz was hearing from clients who couldn’t get masks, hand sanitizers, and disinfectant wipes. She and husband Chris Lewis responded by making free comfort bags to give out. When the pandemic closed their business, they only upped their efforts. Jackie Jardine reports for The Pictou Advocate.
What makes COVID-19 unique
Few dangerous viruses spread as far and as fast as COVID-19. “These characteristics of the new coronavirus—its ability to lie in wait on surfaces and to spread easily among people who feel fine or well enough—that is what make this virus so contagious and hard to stop,” says one expert in this recent Scientific American report. That’s not cause for despair, though; as the report details, experts are already seeing how we can overcome it.
Need to know
Know a community group, good cause, or inspiring local story we should share? Email the editor.
This story was originally published in Halifax Magazine.
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