New Brunswick is reporting one new death and 61 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday as the province re-enters its pandemic state of emergency.
It’s the first time in weeks the province has issued a COVID-19 update on a weekend.
The person who died was in their 70s in Zone 3, the Fredericton region, the province said in a release. That death marks the 53rd COVID-related fatality in New Brunswick.
“Our thoughts are with this person’s family and friends and with everyone who has lost a loved one or has gotten sick due to COVID-19,” said Premier Blaine Higgs.
“We all owe it to them to do our part to protect each other by please, if you can, getting vaccinated.”
One more person has been hospitalized since Friday’s count, for a total of 32 people. Of those, 13 are in ICU. Nobody under the age of 19 is hospitalized.
State of emergency
The province announced Friday that it would reinstate its state of emergency due to the rising number of hospitalizations. Higgs said 25 people in hospital was the “trigger” for calling a state of emergency, and it will remain until hospitalizations across the province are 10 or less.
As of 11:59 p.m. Friday, the following restrictions are in place:
- People must limit their contacts to their household plus 20 consistent contacts.
- Indoor private gatherings will be limited to 20 consistent contacts.
- There will be no limits on outdoor gatherings, as long as physical distancing is maintained.
- Businesses and events where people gather or exercise, including museums, cinemas, theatres, bingo halls, casinos, amusement centres, arenas, game rooms, pools halls, live entertainment venues, weddings, funerals, gyms, yoga studios and similar venues must ensure all employees are fully vaccinated or are continuously masked and tested regularly. Patrons and participants entering such events remain required to be fully vaccinated.
- Physical distancing is required at businesses, services or events where proof of vaccination is not required, such as grocery and retail stores, private businesses and libraries.
- Faith venues have the option to either ensure all participants show proof of full vaccination, or implement the following measures:
- operate at 50 per cent capacity;
- maintain physical distancing;
- ensure continuous mask use;
- record names of all attendees or have assigned seating;
- eliminate singing from services; and
- prevent anyone displaying COVID-19 symptoms and those who have been instructed to self-isolate from entering.
These measures are in addition to restrictions announced earlier this week, which include people showing proof of vaccination for attending certain events and businesses, mandatory indoor masking for all public spaces, and the need for people to pre-register through the New Brunswick Travel Registration Program before entering the provinces.
The province also announced on Thursday that it will begin offering a third dose of an mRNA vaccine to certain groups of immunocompromised people.
End of restrictions was short-lived
The province has seen a big rise in COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks and hospitalizations have been creeping up.
Premier Higgs has been criticized for pushing the province into the green phase at the end of July, before reaching its initial goal of 75 per cent of eligible people fully vaccinated.
But Ray Harris, a data analyst who’s been keeping a close eye on the province’s COVID-19 numbers, noted that at the time, case numbers were low and other jurisdictions weren’t yet seeing the full effects of lifting their restrictions — though he believes Higgs should have waited until the vaccination goal was reached.
Even when cases continued to trickle in this summer, active cases remained stable until the explosion of cases in recent weeks.
“Not all heck broke loose, just yet,” said Harris, adding it got “out of control” pretty quickly.
He did say New Brunswick was slow in re-implementing restrictions when things started to go south. Harris believes it will take at least a week or two after the new restrictions before we’ll see a stabilization and decrease in cases.
He made an analogy of a person with tooth sensitivity who puts off seeing a dentist and ends up needing a root canal.
“And now we’re in the root canal portion.”
New cases
With 53 new recoveries, New Brunswick’s active case count has crept up to 580. Of the 61 new cases, 52 — or 85 per cent — are not fully vaccinated.
The new cases include six in Zone 1, the Moncton region, involving two people 19 and under, two people in their 20s and two people in their 30s. Of those, five cases are under investigation and one is a contact of a previously confirmed case.
There are four new cases in Zone 2, the Saint John region, involving two people 19 and under, a person in their 20s and a person in their 30s. All are close contacts of previously reported cases.
Sixteen cases were found in Zone 3, the Fredericton region. They involve two people 19 and under, a person in their 20s, a person in their 30s, two people in their 40s, three people in their 50s, three people in their 60s, three people in their 70s and one person in their 80s. Eight cases are under investigation and the other eight are close contacts of previously confirmed cases.
There are 18 cases in Zone 4, the Edmundston region, involving five people 19 and under, three people in their 20s, a person in their 30s, five people in their 40s, three people in their 50s and a person in their 80s. Twelve cases are under investigation and six are contacts of previously reported cases.
Nine new cases were reported in Zone 5, the Campbellton region, involving five people 19 and under, a person in their 20s, two people in their 30s, and a person in their 40s. Eight are contacts of previously reported cases and one is under investigation.
Zone 6, the Bathurst region, had six new cases, involving a person 19 and under, three people in their 20s, a person in their 70s and a person in their 80s. Five are under investigation and one is a contact of a previous case.
And two new cases in Zone 7, the Miramichi region, involve a person 19 and under and a person in their 20s. One is under investigation and the other is a contact of a previous case.
In the release, the province said 87.7 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 78.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.