On March 11, 2020, just hours after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, the inevitable happened in New Brunswick.
The first presumptive case of the new coronavirus — COVID-19 — was reported in the province.
A woman returning from France was whisked away into an isolation room at a New Brunswick ER and tested.
That positive result signaled what has, so far, been a year of struggle, hardship and resiliency.
“We knew this day would come,” Premier Blaine Higgs told a news conference on that day.
In the year since then, New Brunswick has confirmed 1,462 cases and marked 29 deaths connected to COVID-19.
In a sit-down interview with Global News, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell looks back on what she calls “a year of uncertainties and learning.”
“We were dealing with changing information, minute by minute, day by day, week by week,” she said.
That meant her department had to adapt to new guidance and public health measures — at a time when the terms ‘face masks’ and ‘social distancing’ were still new.
“I think that that in and of itself was a gargantuan task and challenge,” she said.
“But I feel like we certainly as a province did rise to the occasion collectively to be able to get ahead and stay ahead of COVID-19, for the most part.”
Russell said she’s been inspired by the resiliency of New Brunswickers, and the teamwork that different organizations have been able to show. The province was able to draw on its experiences from the recent measles outbreak and put their disaster planning into practice.
“And when you think about going through the issues of flooding every year … I think there have been things along the way that have contributed to that preparation in advance of a huge crisis like this,” she said.
“I don’t think anybody could have predicted it would be this big and this long, in terms of having to sustain crisis management approach, but certainly we have been working extraordinarily well as a team.”
As vaccination programs begin to roll out in the province, Russell is optimistic but also admits the ongoing threat of COVID-19 may linger. Specifically, new variants of the virus, such as the ones first discovered in the U.K. and South Africa, pose a lot of uncertainty.
“I think looking three to six months ahead, we’re looking at getting everybody vaccinated with one dose by the end of June and a second dose hopefully by the beginning or end of September,” she said.
“And that’s with the variants of concern we are aware of today. I assume that we will see more variants of concern.”
She expects there will be times when health officials will have to play catch-up in a sense, as they deal on an ongoing basis with variants and new vaccines.
“I think we will still see COVID-19 circulating in the world. Not all countries are prepared to vaccinate their population. I think there’s going to be a difference across the globe around how that rolls out. So I think we will continue to see iterations of variants and vaccines in the future,” she said.
Russell admits it will take time and work for communities to bounce back or return to a sense of normal, whether it be in the economy or mental health.
But she also notes New Brunswickers should pause and feel a sense of pride for how they’ve dealt with the past year.
Despite challenges in the province, including an older population, weakened economy and overstretched health care, Russell points out the region was able to keep the number of cases relatively low.
“For this area of the globe, of the country, to have worked so hard and been as successful as we have been, I think that makes me proud and I think all New Brunswickers need to be proud of that as well.”
— With a file from Silas Brown
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