Public Health has announced three new cases of COVID-19 in the province, bringing the total number of active cases to 29.
Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health, said one case is a person in their 20s in the Campbellton region. There are two cases in the Moncton area involving a person in their 20s and another person in their 30s.
Both cases in Moncton involve temporary foreign workers who were tested on their 10th day after arriving in the province and going into self-isolation.
“Our public health teams are working hard to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus throughout our province,” she said during Monday’s news briefing.
Premier Blaine Higgs said he doesn’t want taxes to increase once a vaccine is found. (Government of New Brunswick)
“And while we are moving forward with recovery, it remains as important as ever each and every New Brunswicker do their part.”
Russell said both temporary foreign workers were in isolation when they were diagnosed with the respiratory illness.
These temporary foreign workers will continue to isolate until they are tested twice in a seven day period. If both tests come back negative, they can go to work.
“These individuals have had minimal contact with others since arriving in New Brunswick,” she said.
Russell also offered her condolences to family members of a resident of the Manoir de la Vallée in Atholville, who died over the weekend. The person is the second in New Brunswick to die from the disease. The person was in their 80s.
Russell would provide no details about the person who died, but she did say the individual was living in the the wing where the virus initially broke out.
An 84-year-old long-term care home resident was the first person in New Brunswick to die of COVID-19.
A cluster of cases in the Campbellton region surfaced in mid-May, after a doctor travelled to Quebec and did not self-isolate after returning home to the area.
Daniel Ouellette, 84, died from COVID-19 at the beginning of June. (Submitted by Michel Ouellette)
Many of the cases are linked to Manoir de la Vallée. Russell said Monday there are up to 12 public servants who will be helping out at the long term care facility, after the province put out a call to government staff earlier this month.
29 active cases of COVID-19
Out of the 160 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Brunswick, 129 have recovered, including nine related to the outbreak in the Campbellton region. The province said there are 29 active cases of the virus in New Brunswick.
Four patients are hospitalized with one in an intensive care unit.
As of Monday, 37,509 tests have been conducted.
All areas of New Brunswick are in the yellow level of the COVID-19 recovery plan, with the exception of the Campbellton area. The yellow phase is aimed at the gradual reopening of businesses and activities while working to prevent a resurgence of transmission.
The Campbellton area remains at the orange level of the recovery plan.
Adapting to pandemic by schools will be costly
Education Minister Dominic Cardy says millions of dollars will be spent on New Brunswick education as numerous adaptations are made to return students to school safely during the COVID-19 pandemic,
“It’s going to cost us lots of money but if there’s anything worth investing money in it’s education,” he said during an interview with Information Morning Fredericton.
“If we come out on the other side of this pandemic and we’ve damaged a generation of students and their opportunities to learn and get on in life.”
Cardy said that would do more damage to the province than anything COVID-19 ever did.
In addition to the extra money being spent to hire more teachers and adjust bus routes, the education minister said millions will be spent on cleaning supplies to keep the schools clean.
Cardy said there were two main factors taken into consideration when the plan was being developed: health and safety of students and staff and education.
Education Minister Dominic Cardy expects the province to spend millions of dollars toward New Brunswick education during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Submitted by the Government of New Brunswick)
“What we want for the students is to be able to go to school and come home and say I feel good about myself and I learned something.”
When it comes to class size, Cardy said the planned smaller class sizes for kindergarten to Grade 2 may prove beneficial in the future if their test results show it.
“If New Brunswickers see results in their education system based on changes that have been made because of an emergency like COVID-19, and they still see them as being successes and improvements, I can’t imagine any party or anyone would be interested in reversing those.”
Seasonal residents should let the province know they’re coming
Premier Blaine Higgs recommends seasonal residents looking to return to New Brunswick this summer contact the province to let them know they are coming into the province. That way, Higgs said a government response can be sent to them to have in their possession once they arrive at the New Brunswick border.
“That way they’ll know they won’t have a problem at the border, and they will be able to go immediately to their residence.”
Higgs said residents will be stopped at the New Brunswick border and asked where they’re going, why and if they have property in the province and details of where it’s located.
The CERB is due to run out soon for people who have been on the benefit since it was first launched in April, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
People can only claim the benefit for 16 weeks — four eligibility periods — and the end of the program’s fourth eligibility period is early July.
The Manoir de la Vallée in Atholville has seen a cluster of COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks. (Serge Bouchard/Radio-Canada)
While it’s important to have adequate workforce and an economy that continues to grow, Premier Blaine Higgs said he doesn’t want to see taxes increase in coming years.
“It’s not about sitting around waiting for a vaccine, it’s about managing our business and moving forward until it arrives and beyond,” he said.
New Brunswick won’t ban commercial evictions
Premier Blaine Higgs said he doesn’t have any plans to ban commercial evictions after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked Canadian provinces to do so over concerns that small businesses won’t be able to cover rent costs.
Since the pandemic first started, Higgs there hasn’t been many evictions. And if a business is struggling, he has asked they speak with Opportunities New Brunswick to come up with a solution.
“It’s part of getting back to normal,” he said, “We don’t think landlords want to lose their tenants anymore than a tenant wants to be evicted in these commercial spaces.”
Higgs said now that New Brunswick’s economy is opening up again, businesses are starting to have an easier time paying rent on time.
“I see no reason at this stage to further implement that policy.”
Campbellton’s emergency room closed until further notice
The Campbellton Regional Hospital’s emergency room is closed until further notice because of the spread of COVID-19 in the region, the Vitalité Health Network says.
Visits to the hospital are also prohibited, and all non-emergency services are cancelled until further notice as well.
Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health, said there have been eight cases of COVID-19 involving health-care workers at the hospital where a number of COVID-19 patients are being cared for, including the case that was announced today in the region.
She said health-care workers need to take extra precautions to protect themselves against the virus when caring for people diagnosed with COVID-19.
Last week, Vitalité Health Network announced that the Campbellton Regional Hospital will open its emergency department, but it was closed again over the weekend. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
The hospital’s emergency department has been closed since the end of May, and all non-urgent or elective health-care services were cancelled due to the high risk of transmission of COVID-19.
What to do if you have symptoms
People concerned they might have COVID-19 can take a self-assessment on the government website at gnb.ca.
Public Health says symptoms shown by people with COVID-19 have included: a fever above 38 C, a new cough or worsening chronic cough, sore throat, runny nose, headache, new onset of fatigue, new onset of muscle pain, diarrhea, loss of sense of taste or smell, and difficulty breathing. In children, symptoms have also included purple markings on the fingers and toes.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
