More increases are possible, including the possibility of a new wave, said Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer of health. “It looks like it, but we’re still analyzing the data,” he said, noting that BC and Ottawa recently announced they were experiencing new waves. “I think over the course of the next week, we’ll be able to determine here if that’s the case.” The province doesn’t have any modeling, he said. “Meanwhile, the messages are really about whatever dose you’re entitled to, take it.” Asked if New Brunswick is considering making COVID-19 vaccines widely available in the fall, given recommendations from federal advisory body last week, Russell couldn’t tell. “I don’t have the information on what’s going to happen with that plan, but we’re certainly having discussions about — all the provinces are talking about what needs to happen now and what needs to happen in the fall.” People at high risk of severe disease from COVID-19 infection, including those age 65 and older, should be offered a booster shot this fall, regardless of how many boosters they previously received, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) said. . Everyone else — ages 12 to 64 — “may be offered” the additional doses in the fall, NACI said. Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said New Brunswick is seeing a “steady increase” in the more contagious Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. (Ed Hunter/CBC) The latest deaths include four people in their 80s — two from the Moncton area, Zone 1, one from the Saint John area, Zone 2, and one from the Campbellton area, Zone 5, according to the COVIDWatch report. New Brunswick has now recorded 429 deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. The number of people newly hospitalized for COVID-19 rose to 22 between June 26 and July 2, compared to six the previous week. A child under the age of 10 is among the new entrants. The others include one person in their 40s, four people in their 50s, three in their 60s, four in their 70s, eight in their 80s and one in their 90s.
50 people with COVID in the hospital
The number of people currently hospitalized due to COVID rose to 19 from 15, including one who needs intensive care, according to the province. Health networks Horizon and Vitalité, meanwhile, also reported an increase in the number of active hospitalizations, saying they had 50 patients with COVID as of Saturday, four of whom needed intensive care, compared with 31 and one respectively a week earlier. Unlike the province, which only includes patients admitted for COVID, Horizon and Vitalité also include those who were initially admitted for another reason and later tested positive for the virus in the weekly updates of the COVID dashboard. Horizon had 36 active COVID-19 admissions, including three in intensive care, as of Saturday, compared with 24 and one in last week’s report. The breakdown of cases includes:
Moncton Area, Zone 1 — five. Saint John Region, Zone 2 — 17. Fredericton Area, Zone 3 — 12. Miramichi Area, Zone 7 — two.
The dashboard does not provide details about which hospitals have patients. Vitality had treated 14 patients with COVID-19 since Saturday, twice as many as a week ago, including one who needed intensive care. Tracadie Hospital has five of the patients, three at University Hospital Dr. two.
Vaccination rates unchanged
The highest rate of hospitalizations for COVID-19 continues to be among people ages 60 to 79, according to the province. “Vaccine-unprotected individuals continue to have the highest rate of COVID-19 hospitalization and death,” the report states. The number of eligible New Brunswickers who rolled up their sleeves to get their first, second or booster dose last week — 80, 160 and 375 respectively — was too small to tip vaccination rates. A total of 93.3 percent have received one dose, 88.2 percent have received two doses, and 52.8 percent have received a booster dose. But the fourth tranche went up, Russell said. “We’re seeing some good increases, such as a 2.6 percent increase in the over-50 age group and a 5.1 percent increase in the over-70 age group. Thus, a total of 15,000 people took [their fourth dose] the last week. That’s wonderful. We’d like to see more.” Any progress in vaccination rates contributes not only to individual protection, “but also population-level protection and hospital system protection,” he said. “We know this time of year it’s a planned slowdown at the hospital level so people can take vacations, etc.” New Brunswick has nearly 6,000 vaccine doses set to expire by the end of next month, including 5,930 doses of Moderna (Aug. 18) and 50 doses of the protein-based vaccine Nuvaxovid (Aug. 31). “It’s important to get vaccinated so we can use those doses before they expire,” Russell said. The province will throw out any expired doses and order more from the federal government, he said. Nearly 28,000 doses of pediatric vaccines are set to expire at the end of September. “As long as we can encourage people to get vaccinated with whatever doses are eligible, that’s what we should do.” The province’s vaccine supply also includes 81,378 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, due to expire on November 30, and 500 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, Janssen, due to expire on September 30, 2023.
1,915 new cases, 40% in the Saint John area
A total of 1,915 new cases of COVID-19 were reported last week, up from 1,025. The majority of the new cases – 769 – are in Saint John, Zone 2, which hosted the Memorial Cup major-junior hockey championship last week. culminating in a celebratory parade and thousands of fans lining its streets above the city of Saint John. The 12-day event, which began June 16, also included the Bash on the Bay music festival in the new waterfront container village, a speaker series in Market Square, a ball hockey tournament, a bicycle rodeo. “It’s definitely a big jump to Zone 2,” Russell said. “But we’re seeing increases elsewhere. You know, I don’t think there’s anybody who doesn’t know somebody with COVID right now.” Asked if she thought the increase in Zone 2 was linked to hockey tournaments and events, Russell said: “Those are things that increase the risks, but I don’t know how many of those people were wearing masks or not, etc. So there are many factors to consider. But in terms of what we’re seeing, we’re seeing the numbers pretty high in Zone 2.” Big Tide Brewing Company, which congratulated the Saint John Sea Dogs organization in a social media post for an “amazing Memorial Cup event capped off with a big W,” announced Monday night that it had to temporarily reduce its hours due to lack of staff due to COVID. “We went 28 months without a major outbreak in our team! But here we are now with many staff members at home with COVID!” the pub and restaurant in uptown Saint John posted on Instagram. “We are temporarily changing our hours for the next few days because of this.” Of the 768 new PCR-confirmed cases, 286 were in Saint John, Zone 2, which hosted the Memorial Cup tournament and 12 days of related events starting June 16. (Government of New Brunswick) Of the new cases, 768 were confirmed through laboratory PCR tests (out of 484) and 1,147 were self-reported by people who tested positive in a rapid test (out of 541). 3,793 PCR tests were performed during the reporting period, compared to 3,755 in the last report. There are now 966 active PCR-confirmed cases across the province, up from 657. The Omicron BA.2 subvariant remains the dominant strain in the province, accounting for 53 percent of the most recent random samples sent for sequencing, the report shows, but the Omicron BA.5 subvariant continues to gain ground, accounting for 33 percent, while the Omicron subvariable BA.4 accounted for 14 percent of the samples.
Outbreaks, staffing, occupancy
Horizon has COVID-19 cases in eight hospital units, up from four a week ago — two in Moncton, Zone 1, five in Saint John, Zone 2 and one in Fredericton, Zone 3. The cases include :
Moncton Hospital Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit and 3200 Adult Psychiatric Unit. Saint John Regional Hospital 5CS family medicine unit, surgical intensive care unit and 4CS rehabilitation unit. Sussex Health Center Family Medicine Unit South Wing. Geriatric Assessment Unit of St. Joseph’s Hospital, Geriatrics Emergency Management, 5th Floor. Addiction Unit of the Regional Hospital Dr. Everett Chalmers 3NE.
Vitalité has no units with COVID outbreaks, according to its dashboard. The number of healthcare workers who quit their jobs after either testing positive for COVID-19 or coming into contact with a positive case continues to rise, to 182 from 118. Horizon has 100 of the absences, its dashboard shows. Vitalité has 82 workers out of business. Moncton, Zone 1, has the largest share, with 34, followed by Bathurst, Zone 6, with 29, Campbellton, Zone 5, with 11, and Edmundston, Zone 4, with eight. Horizon has one hospital over capacity, according to figures provided by spokesman Chris McDavid. Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville has a bed occupancy of 108 percent. Vitalité has five hospitals at or above capacity, two of which have patients with COVID. The University Hospital Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont in…
