New Brunswick is “on track” to return to Level 2 of the COVID-19 winter plan through Jan. 31, as planned, Premier Blaine Higgs said Friday, as the province recorded two more COVID-related deaths.
The other two people who died were over eighty years old: one in Zone 2, Saint John region, and another in Zone 5, Campbellton region.
That marks 27 deaths in the past nine days, although Public Health recently said it no longer knows if the COVID deaths it reports are people who died from the virus or people who had the virus but died from something else.
There are now 125 people hospitalized — 73 of them for COVID-19, while 52 were admitted for other reasons and later tested positive, a new COVID-dashboard landing page clearly indicates.
Fourteen other people are in intensive care (three for COVID and 11 for COVID), an increase of two since Thursday, and nine of them are still on ventilators.
Hospital occupancy across the province is 88 per cent, while intensive care unit capacity is 90 per cent.
Last week, in the more restrictive Tier 3, contacts dropped by 30% and early indications are that hospitalizations are emerging at a slower rate, Higgs said at a COVID briefing.
The goal of the 16-day lockdown is to ease building pressure on the health-care system and get more people boosted, said Higgs. And it seems to be working.
“Now that may change,” he was quick to add.
“But right now, I am just happy and excited to report we are on track, and it’s because everyone is being part of the solution.”
Higgs noted that the number of cases will continue to rise and that “we have not yet reached the peak of our hospitalizations. “
“But in combination we have given our fitness formula a greater chance of solving this problem,” he said.
The province moved to Level 3, the most restrictive level of the COVID plan, last Friday at 11:59 p.m.
About 450 health-care workers are off, having tested positive for COVID or isolating, Higgs said.
The dashboard indicates that 186 belong to Horizon Health Network, 182 to Vitalité Health Network and 82 to Extra-Mural/Ambulance New Brunswick.
Some health-care workers have started to return to work after their five-day isolation period, however, which he described as a “positive sign.”
The Department of Social Development has emergency care beds for inpatients who are ultimately waiting to be placed in a long-term care home, Higgs said.
Some seniors have already been discharged from the hospital, and more are expected to be transferred as early as next week, he said.
And more than 3,000 people have responded to the province’s “urgent” call Tuesday for paid and unpaid volunteers to help with the clinical and non-clinical pandemic response.
Education officials are preparing to return to in-person learning on Jan. 31, he said, and Minister Dominic Cardy will have more to say early next week about the steps being taken to make that happen. produce, as well as the use of HEPA filters in schools.
“It is exciting to see us rally once again,” said Higgs, noting there has been a “very high” adherence to the rules.
He is “thankful” and “optimistic,” he said.
“We’ve been given nine days, we can do it. “
When asked if the province would have new models for hospitalizations and instances if the province moves to Level 2 on Jan. 31, Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief health officer, said it’s too early to tell.
“We want to have more knowledge about those curves so we can see what’s going on, and all of those projections are, again, a daily challenge right now,” he said. she declared.
“Once we move forward, we’ll have those knowledge issues so we can look at the projections and compare them to the projections we presented last week. “
Earlier this week, Higgs said in a statement that the government was “very committed” to meeting its timeline to return to the least restrictive Level 2 of the COVID-19 winter plan no later than Jan. 30 at 11:59 p. m. CEST.
And he’s asking New Brunswickers to “do what they can” to make it happen.
Russell suggested that everyone eligible get their booster or first or second dose as soon as possible, especially those at higher risk of being hospitalized, adding those 50 and older.
It is the unvaccinated and undervaccinated who are experiencing the worst of this wave, he said.
Two-thirds of ICU patients are unvaccinated, have received only one dose, or have gotten the booster dose to which they are entitled.
Booster rates are increasing, Russell said. As of Friday, 36. 2 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers had earned their booster shot. A week ago, that figure was 26. 5 percent, he said.
“We want to keep the momentum going. “
“Barely half” of children aged five to 11 — 53 per cent — have received their first dose since they became eligible on Nov. 26, she said. About 25,600 eligible children still haven’t, and progress has slowed in recent weeks.
Parents and guardians can now schedule appointments electronically for their children to receive their second dose, if it’s been at least eight weeks since their first dose, Russell said. “This will improve the coverage provided by the initial vaccine. “
The province’s COVID-19 dashboard has been “enhanced” to include a lot more important data and make it easier to find, Premier Blaine Higgs said Friday.
“We’ve been working hard to ensure that information is presented in a way that is accessible and easy to understand,” he told the COVID briefing.
While the province continues to report case counts, the immediate effects are what it reports itself, he said.
“Therefore, the true effect of COVID in New Brunswick cannot be the one that should be measured in terms of cases.
“Instead, as we have said before, we are focused on hospitalizations and the impacts on our entire health-care system.”
A new landing page includes information on hospitalizations and ICU admissions, as well as how the numbers have advanced or worsened since the last report, Higgs said.
It shows the number of other people admitted to the hospital due to COVID-19 and those who were admitted for other reasons but later tested positive for COVID.
In addition, the panel provides the percentage of hospitalizations, ICU patients requiring ventilators and deaths due to the prestige of vaccination since Dec. 1, just before the Omicron wave, Higgs said.
“As we know that vaccine efficacy decreases over time, this knowledge will fall into two categories: those who are fully vaccinated and those who are not. “
The new homepage also includes information showing the status of the fitness system, adding the number of positive and isolating workers, as well as overall occupancy rates of hospitals and intensive care units, he said.
The panel shows that 514 new COVID cases were confirmed using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, bringing the number of active cases to 4717. This figure is not included with other people who were immediately tested and tested positive.
Another 780 people reported online that they had tested positive on immediate tests.
A total of 669,012 PCR tests have been conducted to date, including 2,093 on Thursday. That puts the positivity rate at 24.6 per cent.
As of Friday, 36.2 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers have received a booster dose, up from 34.9 per cent, 83.6 per cent have received two doses, up from 83.5 per cent, and 91.5 per cent have received one dose, up from 91.4 per cent, according to the COVID-19 dashboard.
New Brunswick has recorded 25,003 PCR-confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, with 20,083 recoveries to date and 201 COVID-related deaths.
There are COVID-19 outbreaks at 47 long-term care homes across the province, with 541 people infected, according to figures released by the Department of Social Development late Thursday.
One died, ministry spokesman Robert Duguay said.
Thirteen of the outbreaks are in nursing homes, while the remaining 34 are in special care homes, he said.
At the nursing homes, 33 residents and 60 staff have tested positive.
Recently, 279 citizens and 169 members have been involved in special care homes.
The names and locations of the amenities have been revealed.
Earlier this week, CBC News reported that an outbreak at the Grand Manan nursing home had inflamed 23 of the 28 citizens and 26 staff members.
Provincial Rapid Outbreak Management Teams (PROMT) have been deployed to 32 of the 34 nursing home outbreaks, Duguay said.
PROMT is provided on-site in any of the nursing home outbreaks. Social Development “now deals with all epidemics in [nursing homes]. It’s new,” he said, without elaborating.
Asked Friday why Public Health is actively reporting on such outbreaks and how the government is responding to unions that say it has let the long-term care sector down, Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anna Sullivan said. Jennifer Russell did not answer any of the questions directly.
As for COVID-19 coverage, he said citizens at the facility would have been “first in line” to get COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.
Public Health also collaborates intensively with Social Development and the regional health government to temporarily address human resource problems and has put out a call for volunteers, he said.
“We’ve had outbreaks led through Social Development with respect to those facilities. But, in terms of our input from an attitude of public fitness and from an attitude of fitness, we, again, have been at the table all along in terms of recommendations and movements and their implementation.
Megan Mitton, the MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar and the Green Party’s health critic, has called on the government to be more transparent about outbreaks in long-term care facilities for months.
About 563 provincial government employees remain on unpaid leave because they’re unvaccinated against COVID-19, said Department of Finance and Treasury Board spokesperson Erika Jutras.
That’s the number of the province’s 58,000 workers who were unvaccinated in November 2021, when vaccination was mandatory, he said.
“As less than one percent of staff are unvaccinated, any update is negligible. “
Here’s the breakdown of other people who have stayed home without getting paid in the past two months:
“It’s not too late for those who got vaccinated to get vaccinated,” Jutras said. “We inspire them to do it. “
No one has been fired for being vaccinated, he added.
Premier Blaine Higgs announced on Oct. 5 that all provincial government workers in the public service, school formula, fitness formula and Corona corporations, as well as in long-term care facility schools and licensed early learning and care settings were required to be fully vaccinated. until November 19.
On Nov. 20, workers who were fully vaccinated and had a medical exemption were placed on unpaid leave.
A COVID-19 vaccination scheduled for Sunday at Fredericton High School has been canceled, Horizon Health Network reported Friday on social media.
People with a booked appointment will need to reschedule, according to a Twitter post.
Those who were making plans to attend walk-ins are kindly requested to check online when the clinic will take place.
Horizon officials did not respond to a question about how many other people had reservations or what prompted the cancellation.
Immediate check collection in Miramichi is moving, says Horizon Health Network.
Starting Monday, the pickup location will be at Tyra’s Infinity Center, 1 Marina Dr. , in Douglastown.
The move is to intended to “reduce congestion” at the current Wellington Street site, which also serves as the PCR testing clinic, spokesperson Kris McDavid told CBC News.
“So most often this is a logistical measure,” he said in an email.
With archives through Hadeel Ibrahim
Public Relations, CBC P. O. P. Box 500, Station To Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6
Toll Free (Canada only): 1-866-306-4636
It is a precedent for CBC to create products that are available to everyone in Canada, adding others with visual, auditory, motor and cognitive challenges.
Closed captioning and described videos are available for many CBC systems featured in CBC Gem.