HALIFAX - While Nova Scotia's top doctors are warning of a rise in influenza and other respiratory viruses (RSV) that have combined with COVID-19 to clog emergency rooms and pediatric wings across the province, mask mandates and lockdowns of any size remain off the table. 

Nova Scotia's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Robert Strang, and the Chair and Chief of Pediatrics for the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Dr. Andrew Lynk, joined forces on Thursday afternoon to share their findings, concerns and predictions in a joint press conference. Dr. Lynk described the current rate of RSV cases at the IWK, the Maritimes' only children's hospital, as being at "an historic rate" unlike any numbers he has experienced since his early days as a pediatrician in 1990. 

"Normally, a very busy 24-hour shift at the IWK emergency department would be 120 to 140 kids," Dr. Lynk noted. "We're consistently hitting between 150 and 180, even up to 200."

However, although Dr. Strang repeated Nova Scotia's position that masks should be worn in public places by those who have shown symptoms of COVID-19, influenza and other RSV, he stressed that a number of factors - including a lack of public appetite or buy-in for enforced mask-wearing - have rendered it impractical for Nova Scotia Public Health to revive the mask mandates that disappeared on March 21 along with all remaining COVID-19 restrictions across the province. 

In addition to the entirety of the November 17 media availability, this week's episode of TELILE 24/7 features reaction from Richmond Warden Amanda Mombourquette and the Senior Executive Director of the provincial Office of Healthcare Professional Recruitment, Suzanne Ley, regarding a new program designed to marshal resources from the Department of Health and Wellness to assist community-based physician recruitment efforts and health-professional navigators across Nova Scotia.