New Brunswick reported five additional COVID-19 deaths in its latest weekly report, the same amount as reported last week.
In the seven-day period ending Oct. 1, the province also recorded a stable number of new hospital admissions compared to last week. This period saw 19 new admissions, up by one, and the number of active hospitalizations on Tuesday remains 19.
One individual is currently in ICU for COVID-19 complications.
The highest portion of hospitalizations is among individuals aged 70 to 89, the province reported.
“Individuals that are unprotected by vaccine continue to have the highest rate of COVID-19 ICU admissions,” the province said in its report.
The province also reported 596 new PCR-confirmed cases of COVID-19, for an estimated 826 cases remaining active Tuesday.
According to the report, the most recent random sample sequenced for the virus in the province showed that 94 per cent of cases are the BA.5 subvariant of Omicron.
In the vaccination campaign against COVID-19, another 376 people received a third shot, or first booster, of the vaccine, for a total of 53.7 per cent. About 85.4 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers have received at least two doses of the vaccine.
The weekly report states that since the start of the Omicron waves on Dec. 5, 2021, more than 45 per cent of those hospitalized for COVID-19 were unvaccinated.
Unvaccinated means having less than two doses.
More than 58 per cent of those admitted to ICU, and 39.8 per cent of those who died from the virus, were unvaccinated. For comparison, less than 15 per cent of New Brunswickers have one or zero doses of the vaccine.
The province said there is an uptick in cases across the country, but a decline in deaths in recent months.