5 Cases Of Covid-19 Confirmed At J.D. Irving Sawmill In St. Leonard
FREDERICTON – Public Health reported 14 new cases of Covid-19 in the province on Wednesday, including five in an outbreak at the J.D. Irving sawmill in Zone 4.
Overall, Zone 4 (Edmundston region) added 12 new cases.
Zone 2 (Saint John region) and Zone 3 (Fredericton region) each added one new case.
New Brunswick has 175 active cases after 22 people recovered since Tuesday.
An outbreak has been declared at the Irving sawmill in Saint-Léonard. Public Health is investigating the outbreak, carrying out contact tracing and conducting employee testing at the facility.
In a press release, the company says the five people are self-isolating and none are in the hospital. They work in an isolated area of the site, away from the main sawmill.
‘We wish our co-workers a speedy recovery. Keeping one another safe is the most important priority in our sawmills,’’ said Jerome Pelletier, Vice President of Sawmills for J.D. Irving, Limited, in a release.
“As soon as we learned about the first positive case we closed the area where these employees work to perform deep disinfection. We also initiated our contact tracing protocols. We are now working closely with Public Health to perform Covid testing for employees at the site.”
On a voluntary basis, all 272 employees at the site will be provided the opportunity for three tests over the next 14 days.