Health
Thousands of pediatric vaccines administered in N.B.; 124th death related to COVID-19 reported Monday – CTV News Atlantic
HALIFAX –
Nearly 3,000 New Brunswick children aged five to 11 have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday.
Public health says this includes 400 11-year-olds who have received their second vaccine dose.
“These children had been eligible to receive the regular vaccination earlier this year because they will be 12 before Dec. 31,” wrote public health in a news release on Monday.
According to health officials, more than 11,040 appointments have been booked for children in the age five to 11 cohort.
In order to meet demand, additional clinics for children have been added in the Moncton region (Zone 1) and the Fredericton region (Zone 3).
More clinics will also be added in other areas if needed.
More than 130 pharmacies will also take part in dispensing doses of the pediatric vaccine, which they will begin receiving between Dec. 2 and 8.
Information on booking appointments at pharmacies is available online.
VACCINE UPDATE
Health officials in New Brunswick say 81.6 per cent of eligible residents are fully vaccinated and 86.5 per cent have received their first dose of a vaccine.
“We have added children aged five to 11 to our vaccination statistics,” said Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health. “That is why our percentages are lower. As more children under 12 get vaccinated, we will quickly see our vaccination progress improve and the percentages will increase again.”
In total, 1,262,605 vaccine doses have been administered in New Brunswick.
COVID-19 vaccination eligibility will be expanded in the province to include children aged five to 11 as soon as the special child vaccines are received. Regional health authority community clinics and participating pharmacies will have a role to play in administering the vaccine and details will be announced this week.
A detailed list of those eligible for a booster dose in New Brunswick is available online.
46 NEW CASES, ONE DEATH, 132 RECOVERIES
New Brunswick is reporting one new death related to COVID-19 on Monday.
Health officials say the death involves a person in their 70s in the Moncton region (Zone 1).
New Brunswick also reported 46 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, along with 132 recoveries, as the total number of active infections drops to 706.
Public health says there are 64 people in hospital due to COVID-19, 17 of whom are in an intensive care unit.
There is currently one person in hospital under the age of 19 in New Brunswick.
“Though the number of people currently hospitalized is of concern, 23 individuals contracted COVID-19 while already in hospital for another reason,” said Russell. “Steps are being taken to ensure that the virus does not spread further in hospitals in Moncton and Saint John.”
“The rate of people hospitalized and in ICU, as well as new cases, continues to impact people that are unvaccinated the most,” wrote public health.
Information about the rates of cases and hospitalizations based on vaccination status is available on the COVID-19 dashboard.
REGIONAL BREAKDOWN OF NEW CASES
Fifteen new cases in Zone 1 (Moncton region) are as follows:
- three people 19 and under
- three people 20-29
- a person 30-39
- three people 40-49
- a person 50-5
- a person 60-69
- three people 70-79
Ten cases are under investigation, three cases are contacts of previously confirmed cases and two cases are travel related.
Ten new cases in Zone 2 (Saint John region) are as follows:
- two people 19 and under
- two people 30-39
- a person 40-49
- four people 50-59
- a person 60-69
Seven cases are contacts of previously confirmed cases and three cases are under investigation.
Nine new cases in Zone 3 (Fredericton region) are as follows:
- four people 19 and under
- two people 30-39
- a person 50-59
- a person 60-69
- a person 80-89
Seven cases are contacts of previously confirmed cases and two cases are under investigation.
One new case in Zone 5 (Campbellton region) is a person 19 and under. This case is a contact of a previously confirmed case.
Eleven new cases in Zone 7 (Miramichi region) are as follows:
- four people 19 and under
- a person 20-29
- three people 30-39
- a person 40-49
- two people 60-69
Seven cases are under investigation and four are contacts of previously confirmed cases.
Additional information is available on the COVID-19 dashboard.
IMMUNOLOGIST ADVISES CAUTION WITH NEW VARIANT
Rodney Russell, an immunologist at Memorial University of Newfoundland, says the focus should be on how many are in hospital with the virus – not necessarily how many cases there are.
But he says the vaccine is still the more effective tool to protect against hospitalization – even against new variants of concern like the Omicron variant.
“With this one, again, no real data yet…but on paper, based on what the mutations are in this variant, I would definitely be careful,” he said.
Twenty-three of the 64 hospitalizations in New Brunswick are people who contracted the virus while already in hospital for another reason.
The highest number of hospitalizations due to the virus to date, was 68 on Oct. 13.
“Given the situation right now with the epidemiology, you have to keep an eye on things and now we’ve got this new variant that may or may not be on its way to the Atlantic region,” he said. “We have to see how things are looking. It’s really hard to impose any kind of restrictions with the holidays coming, of course, but at the end of the day – we do have to do whatever’s necessary to protect the public at this time.”
A department of health spokesperson says they have to weigh “multiple factors…when considering whether additional measures are necessary to contain the spread of COVID-19.”
They are encouraging New Brunswickers to practice public health measures like masking, physical distancing, hand washing, “so that we can all enjoy the Holiday season with our friends and family.”
CASE DATA
New Brunswick has had 8,236 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of those, 7,432 cases have recovered and 124 people have died.
To date, 557,710 COVID-19 tests has been conducted in New Brunswick.
POTENTIAL PUBLIC EXPOSURES
A full list of potential COVID-19 exposure notifications in New Brunswick can be found on the province’s website.
Anyone with symptoms of the virus, as well as anyone who has been at the site of a possible public exposure, is urged to request a test online or call Tele-Care at 811 to get an appointment.
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Interior Health says it delivered nearly 800,000 immunization doses last year — a number almost equal to the region’s population.
The released figure of 784,980 comes during National Immunization Awareness Week, which runs April 22-30.
The health care organization, which serves a large area of around 820,000, says it’s using the occasion to boost vaccine rates even though there may be post-pandemic vaccine fatigue.
“This is a very important initiative because it ensures that communicable diseases stay away from a region,” said Dr. Silvina Mema of Interior Health.
However, not all those doses were for COVID; the tally includes childhood immunizations plus immunizations for adults.
But IHA said immunizations are down from the height of the pandemic, when COVID vaccines were rolled out, though it seems to be on par with previous pre-pandemic years.
Interior Health says it’d like to see the overall immunization rate rise.
“Certainly there are some folks who have decided a vaccine is not for them. And they have their reasons,” said Jonathan Spence, manager of communicable disease prevention and control at Interior Health.
“I think there’s a lot of people who are hesitant, but that’s just simply because they have questions.
“And that’s actually part of what we’re celebrating this week is those public health nurses, those pharmacists, who can answer questions and answer questions with really good information around immunization.”
Mima echoed that sentiment.
“We take immunization very seriously. It’s a science-based program that has saved countless lives across the world and eliminated diseases that were before a threat and now we don’t see them anymore,” she said.
“So immunization is very important.”
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that samples of pasteurized milk had tested positive for remnants of the bird flu virus that has infected dairy cows.
The agency stressed that the material is inactivated and that the findings “do not represent actual virus that may be a risk to consumers.” Officials added that they’re continuing to study the issue.
“To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the FDA said in a statement.
The announcement comes nearly a month after an avian influenza virus that has sickened millions of wild and commercial birds in recent years was detected in dairy cows in at least eight states. The Agriculture Department says 33 herds have been affected to date.
FDA officials didn’t indicate how many samples they tested or where they were obtained. The agency has been evaluating milk during processing and from grocery stores, officials said. Results of additional tests are expected in “the next few days to weeks.”
The PCR lab test the FDA used would have detected viral genetic material even after live virus was killed by pasteurization, or heat treatment, said Lee-Ann Jaykus, an emeritus food microbiologist and virologist at North Carolina State University
“There is no evidence to date that this is infectious virus and the FDA is following up on that,” Jaykus said.
Officials with the FDA and the USDA had previously said milk from affected cattle did not enter the commercial supply. Milk from sick animals is supposed to be diverted and destroyed. Federal regulations require milk that enters interstate commerce to be pasteurized.
Because the detection of the bird flu virus known as Type A H5N1 in dairy cattle is new and the situation is evolving, no studies on the effects of pasteurization on the virus have been completed, FDA officials said. But past research shows that pasteurization is “very likely” to inactivate heat-sensitive viruses like H5N1, the agency added.
Matt Herrick, a spokesman for the International Dairy Foods Association, said that time and temperature regulations for pasteurization ensure that the commercial U.S. milk supply is safe. Remnants of the virus “have zero impact on human health,” he wrote in an email.
Scientists confirmed the H5N1 virus in dairy cows in March after weeks of reports that cows in Texas were suffering from a mysterious malady. The cows were lethargic and saw a dramatic reduction in milk production. Although the H5N1 virus is lethal to commercial poultry, most infected cattle seem to recover within two weeks, experts said.
To date, two people in U.S. have been infected with bird flu. A Texas dairy worker who was in close contact with an infected cow recently developed a mild eye infection and has recovered. In 2022, a prison inmate in a work program caught it while killing infected birds at a Colorado poultry farm. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Canada is about where it should be when it comes to childhood vaccines, but for adult vaccinations it’s a different story.
Dr. Vivien Brown of Immunize Canada says the overall population should have rates of between 80 and 90 per cent for most vaccines, but that is not the case.
She says most children are in that range but not for adult vaccines and ultimately the most at-risk populations are not being reached.
She says the population is under immunized for conditions such as pneumonia, shingles, tetanus, and pertussis.
Brown wants people to talk with their family physician or pharmacist to see if they are up-to-date on vaccines, and to get caught up because many are “killer diseases.”
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