Earlier today, the provincial government announced that the current provincewide restrictions would be extended until Feb. 14. To read the full press release from the province, please click here.

During the update, however, Dr. Robert Strang, Chief Medical Officer of Health for Nova Scotia, noted that, "We’ll continue to monitor closely and recognizing the importance of activities like sports, arts and culture to mental and physical health, we will open those activities sooner if possible."

Premier Tim Houston also mentioned that, "The goal that we're… working towards is to relax some restrictions in arts and culture."

He indicated that, depending on the hospitalization rate and the continued success of the booster campaign, the following could be allowed in the coming weeks:

• sports teams could be allowed to resume full practices with their entire teams "around Feb. 7"
• competitions and games could be permitted by Feb. 14

This is the goal of the province but a firm plan is not currently in place yet.

As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue to work with Public Health and the province to get safely back to game action as soon as possible.