All Of New Brunswick Returns To Orange Level
FREDERICTON – The whole province of New Brunswick returned to the stricter orange level of recovery starting midnight Tuesday, as the province reported a record-high number of new active cases in a day since the pandemic began.
New Brunswick’s top doctor, Dr. Jennifer Russell, said the move is made to slow down the “rapid” spread of Covid-19 in the province.
There are 27 new active cases in the province reported on Tuesday.
That includes nine in the Moncton area, three in the Saint John area, 11 in the Fredericton region, two in the Edmundston region and two in the Campbellton area.
“We’ve had more than 50 new cases in the past three days alone,” she said.
“There’s a serious risk that the outbreaks now underway could spread more widely, overwhelming out healthcare systems with hundreds of new cases a day as is happening in Maine and Quebec,” she added. “We still haven’t seen the effects of New Years Eve gatherings in terms of a spike in cases yet.”
“We’re also very concerned about the new variant of Covid-19 which has emerged in the U.K and South Africa,” she said.
The U.K. variant is already present in three Canadian provinces, Russell noted, adding that additional measures need to be taken to prevent it from reaching New Brunswick.
Russell said the current spike in cases emerged because some people who have shown Covid-19 symptoms attended holiday gatherings with family and friends, and some have gone to work.
“This has led to a chain of infections beyond the initial event, and creates the potential for more cases in the days to come,” she said.
There was also a drop in testing during the holidays, though that has rebounded. Russell urged anyone with even mild symptoms to get tested and stay home.
She also urges people to be honest with contact tracing officers about who they’ve met, and other information that may be asked.
“I am hearing from all the regional staff that they are having difficulty sometimes getting info, they’re having difficulty sometimes with people being rude and upset with them. They’re just doing their job,” she said.
“If you don’t care about yourself, please, care about others,” Higgs added.
Russell and Higgs urged New Brunswickers to avoid all non-essential travel outside of their health zones. More people had traveled during the holiday season, they noted.
“We typically have 4-to-5,000 people in isolation for travel,” Higgs said. “Yesterday, we had 6,430 people in our province self isolating due to travel. It was as high as 8000.”
“We’ll be increasing our health and safety checks on self-isolating travelers. Officers will also continue making in-person visits,” he added.
Relief For Small Businesses
The government is extending a little more help for small businesses.
Through Opportunities New Brunswick, grants of up to $5,000 are available for small businesses that have been subject to orange or red level measures for at least one week between Oct. 10, 2020, and March 31, 2021.
Details on eligibility and ways to apply are expected in the coming weeks.
Russell said there are new risks to consider before deciding whether or not restrictions under the orange level will change for businesses, or whether the province could go back to the red level.
Besides the high number of cases and the threat from the U.K. variant of the virus, the province is also at a “critical juncture” in its immunization campaign for the top priority groups.
“We really wouldn’t want the healthcare systems to be impacted by that because it would impact the rollout of the vaccine program,” she said. “It is a rapidly evolving situation.
To date, New Brunswick has received 8,250 doses of the vaccine, with another 6,500 set to come next week. But Premier Blaine Higgs wants the federal government to send more supplies to the province.
“We have the capability to vaccinate 45,000 people in a week at a minimum,” he said. But at the current rate of vaccination, New Brunswick won’t be able to immunize its population to herd immunity level until late spring or mid-summer.
“We could do it so much faster. In fact, we can do it in 10 weeks. But we need vaccines to do that,” he said.
Additionally, the province also announced possible exposures at Miss Cue pool hall in Moncton from Dec. 31 at 11 p.m. to Jan. 1 at 1:30 a.m, and Walmart in 4 Jagoe St. in Atholville on Dec. 30 between 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and on Dec. 31 between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
There are 80 active cases across all regions of the province currently, with one person in intensive care. New Brunswick has had 662 confirmed cases, with 572 recoveries and nine deaths.