N.B. Announces Mandatory Mask Policy In Indoor Public Places
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick’s premier says masks will become mandatory in all indoor public places as of midnight Thursday night.
The rule is in line with a recommendation from Public Health. Children under two years old, and people with valid medical conditions are exempt. Resources for business, including signage, are available on the government’s coronavirus website.
It comes as the province’s chief medical officer of health announced three new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.
Dr. Jennifer Russell said the cases are not linked to an outbreak at the Manoir Notre-Dame special care home in Moncton.
Russell said two of the cases are related to travel outside of Atlantic Canada — one person in their 40s in the Saint John region and one person in their 20s in the Fredericton region.
The third case, a person in their 30s in the Campbellton region, remains under investigation.
The province now has 24 active cases of COVID-19, including 19 cases linked to the outbreak in Moncton.
Russell said for now, the situation doesn’t warrant moving back to the orange phase, but “things can change at any time.”
Premier Blaine Higgs said this is another prevention tool that would keep New Brunswick in the yellow phase of recovery.
In the last week, inspection and enforcement officers from the Department of Justice and Public Safety surveyed 600 public places in New Brunswick and found that on average, only 36 percent of residents wear masks. In urban centres, only an average of 16 percent of residents mask up.
“Unfortunately, there are too many people who are still not wearing their masks when required,” Premier Blaine Higgs said.
Higgs said it won’t be possible to enforce mask use thoroughly, but there will be more monitoring on compliance. Businesses also now have the ability to enforce the requirement with legal backing.
“We will never be able to enforce it throughout our province in a way that is necessary to ensure we look after each other, but it will be monitored. We will be looking for adherence and we’ll decide in terms of what level of adherence we get whether it’s good enough and where the exposures may be,” he said.
He’s relying more on New Brunswickers to “look after each other.”
“We don’t see it as a case of enforcement, we see it as a case of people being reasonable with each other knowing that it’s a requirement, knowing that it’s expected that people wear masks certainly in public spaces and indoors,” he said.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell said masks aren’t “a substitution for getting closer to people unnecessarily” in businesses or commercial properties.
“There are some seated venues where you can be allowed to be there with a distance of one metre wearing a mask continuously, but again, the mandatory mask effort in terms of what we expect and hope that people will be able to do is that it becomes normalized, it becomes very common,” she said.
“We have to continue to look at all of the things that we need to do as the risks increase, and balance those with mental health, the economy and people’s finances, and having an open society as possible while mitigating the risks for Covid-19.”
More Ease For Atlantic Bubble Travelers
Higgs also announced that those traveling to New Brunswick from outside the Atlantic Bubble must pre-register before they arrive. However, those coming to the province from within the bubble will no longer have to stop for screening at New Brunswick’s borders.
He says this will allow resources to be focused where they’re most needed, including screening at other borders, follow up with those who have to isolate, as well as enforcement of guidelines on gatherings, business operations, and mask use, among others.
The outbreak in Moncton also has not changed the bubble arrangement, Higgs said.
“There hasn’t been any suggestion of any kind from any of my colleagues that there would be any change to the Atlantic Bubble,” he said.
With files from Brad Perry, news director at CHSJ/97.3 The Wave, Huddle content partners.