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New Brunswick reports 5 new COVID-19 cases Saturday

Click to play video: 'New Brunswickers react following arrival of COVID-19 vaccines'
New Brunswickers react following arrival of COVID-19 vaccines
With the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine officially within provincial borders, Travis Fortnum looks into how New Brunswickers are feeling – Dec 15, 2020

New Brunswick health officials reported five new cases of the coronavirus Saturday, bringing the total number of active cases in the province to 49.

The new cases include one individual in the Moncton region, two in the Saint John region, one in Bathurst and one in Edmundston. The province says these cases are under investigation.

To date, New Brunswick has confirmed 578 positive cases of COVID-19 and 520 individuals have recovered. There have been eight deaths.

As of Saturday, three patients are hospitalized, one of which is in intensive care.

The province says the Edmundston region remains under the orange phase of COVID-19 recovery.

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On Saturday, New Brunswick vaccinated its first residents against COVID-19 at an immunization clinic in Miramichi.

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The province’s first allotment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 came in 1,950 doses — all of which will be given out this weekend.

Eighty-four-year-old Pauline Gauvin, a resident of Shannex Losier Hall, was the first New Brunswicker to receive the vaccine.

Click to play video: 'Coronavirus: New Brunswick begins ‘historic’ COVID-19 vaccination process'
Coronavirus: New Brunswick begins ‘historic’ COVID-19 vaccination process

The province said half, or 1,950, of the 3,900 doses arriving next week will be held until the weekend of Jan. 9, 2021 to serve as the second dose of the vaccine for those receiving the vaccine this weekend.

The other half will be used to administer two doses to an additional 975 people.

“This is just the very first step, it’s a drop in the bucket, but it’s getting the ball rolling,” New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell said.

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