Amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, businesses in New Brunswick are again facing closure. For some, there will be no reopening.
Downtown Campbellton, a business improvement group, says three shops have already said they’d be closing for good.
President Luc Couturier, who is also a local chamber of commerce board member and a restaurant owner, says orange phase restrictions coupled with the closure of the J.C. Van Horne Bridge are the reasons behind the business impacts.
“We’ve been hit pretty hard… It’s the second time, well I would say the third time because when it started in March, we closed for five weeks, we had another outbreak in the spring that put us behind and we lost our summer because of no tourists,” he says. “Now we’re being hit again when we’re getting close to Christmas so it’s getting very, very concerning.”
Courtier is calling on the provincial government to support small businesses before it’s too late.
“We’re the biggest employers in New Brunswick, and if we don’t get help and we lose 20-25 per cent of small business, it will be devastating for this province,” Couturier says.
New Brunswick announced two new cases of COVID-19 Friday, both in the Campbellton region or health zone 5.
This comes a day after Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said four unlinked chains of infection likely mean there is community spread.
Dr. Russell, Health Minister Dorothy Shephard, Local Government Minister Daniel Allain, and other provincial officials visited the region Friday morning to update the local mayors on the situation.
Brad Mann, chair of the Restigouche Regional Service Commission, said he greatly appreciates some clarity on a changing situation. He points out the fact that Thursday “family members” were included in the one-household bubble, but now it’s expected only one additional caregiver or family member be included. Also, there was a clarification around boundaries of zone 5: Belledune has to follow orange phase conditions while Kedgewick does not.
“We can’t be changing border lines in a pandemic — halfway through the pandemic — to confuse people,” Mann says. “Then all of a sudden people get like: ‘don’t trust anything more than comes out of Fredericton’; ‘what are they gonna tell us tomorrow?'”
Mann says community members and officials in the region need to come together to stop the spread of COVID-19 and flatten the curve.
Meanwhile, a local retired nurse of 35 years says while tightening up restrictions may not be a popular decision, she applauds it due to the high rate of chronic illness in the Campbellton region.
“We have a very high rate of COPD, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiac illnesses that don’t generally do well with COVID,” says Nancy Duguay. “I think that these people need to be protected. We need to ensure that our health-care system is ready to look after people should we need hospitalizations. And at the present time, our health-care system here in Campbellton is very, very fragile — and that’s a concern.”
For locals without COVID-19 symptoms, mass testing is taking place in Campbellton Saturday and Dalhousie Sunday.
People with symptoms need an appointment after a referral online or through the 811 telecare line.