The province’s Health Minister says one of the biggest challenges around allowing more elective surgeries and procedures is bed capacity in the event of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

John Haggie says the availability of PPE also needs to be carefully considered.

He says the health authorities are taking a cautious approach but if the situation changes, they will consider making alterations.

Haggie explains that if someone was admitted to the hospital for a procedure, they could be an in-patient for five to 15 days, making that bed unavailable for anybody else.