New Brunswick health officials reported 32 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday.
Five new cases are located in the Moncton region, three in the Saint John region, three in the Fredericton region and two in the Campbellton region.
Nineteen of the new cases are located in the Edmundston region, six of which are linked to a workplace exposure at the Nadeau Poultry plant.
The plant has now reported 24 cases of COVID-19 and remains closed.
There are now 324 active cases in the province.
Case numbers in zones 1, 2 and 3 “appear to be stabilizing,” said chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell in a Thursday briefing.
But the situation in Zone 4 is “gravely concerning,” she said.
Zone 4, the Edmundston region, has 113 active cases as of Thursday, over a third of the provincial total.
That zone, and zones 1, 2 and 3, remain under the red level of COVID-19 recovery.
“We have discussed the possibility of going into a complete lockdown in that zone if it is necessary,” said Premier Blaine Higgs in the briefing.
Higgs says it would look much like the province-wide shut down in the spring of 2020.
Russell says a lockdown alone is not as effective as targeted measures, but if it becomes necessary, the province will not hesitate to go in that direction.
Zones 5, 6 and 7 remain in the orange level.
“It is our hope that this will continue, and we can move these zones back to orange,” Higgs says. “If we continue to focus on protecting each other, we could move these zones to orange in a matter of days, not weeks or months.”
Higgs said the New Brunswick Justice Department completed 327 site visits between Sunday and Wednesday.
Enforcement officers identified several offences and handed out: 20 compliance orders, 20 tickets under the Emergency Measures Act, 23 stop-work orders under WorkSafe NB, 12 orders under WorkSafe NB and one administrative order under WorkSafe NB.
From 179 house visits made to persons self-isolating, there were only four cases of non-compliance.
“It only takes one careless act to impact a community, to impact the region, to impact the province. The rules are so simple,” Higgs said.
School-related cases
The province is advising of a positive case at Riverview High School in the Moncton region.
The Anglophone East School District said Wednesday evening that the case has closed the school for at least the next three days, as per red phase guidelines.
According to a news release, students at École Élémentaire Sacré-Cœur in Grand Falls, and École Régionale Saint-Basile in Edmundston, will continue to learn from home this week, as staff testing continues.
Nursing home outbreak
The province also declared an outbreak at Le Pavillon Le Royer, a special care home in Edmundston. An outbreak management team is on-site to conduct testing of residents and staff, and to provide “support for residents and the facility’s clinical care team.”
An outbreak at another long-term care facility, Manoir Belle Vue in Edmundston, was declared on Wednesday.
The province is advising of a potential exposure to COVID-19 at an Edmundston gym.
The potential exposure may have occurred at the Sparta Progression Gym on 44 Avenue Dr., on Jan. 13 and Jan. 15 between 7 – 9 a.m.