Nova Scotia indoor dining must close across the province for at least the next two weeks amid a new shutdown aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.

Restaurants and bars must close for dine-in service, although contactless takeout or delivery is allowed.

Retail outlets including those that sell food can remain open at 25 per cent capacity, as can Nova Scotia Liquor Commission stores.

Halifax restaurants, which were allowed to start serving indoors again in January, were closed for indoor dining for the third time this pandemic on April 23, but that has now been extended to the whole province.

The government has ordered a province-wide lockdown for two weeks starting on April 28 as a “circuit-breaker” measure to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The shutdown, in effect from 8 a.m. on April 28 until at least May 12, is aimed at containing the spread of the virus.

Nova Scotia reported 96 new cases of COVID-19 on April 27. Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin said that variants of the virus are spreading through the province faster than ever before. The Halifax Regional Municipality and surrounding area have been seeing community spread for weeks, but a cluster of cases in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is also continuing to grow.

“We are in a critical race between the vaccine rollout and the variant, and right now the variant is winning,” Rankin said.