Mount A sees bump in COVID cases on campus
Mount Allison University says it is seeing increased cases of COVID-19 on campus, and is asking the campus community to “diligently follow” the school’s public health protocols. The school released new case counts on Tuesday reflecting 49 new cases in the past week, all self-reported from people getting positive rapid test results. That number may include some people who are currently not on campus in Sackville.
As of Tuesday morning, the school reports 33 people with active cases in the Sackville campus community. Seven of those cases are in people living off campus, and 26 are in residence.
The school has been giving weekly updates on case counts since January 18, and this is the largest jump in new cases during that time. It’s also the first time that on campus cases outnumber off campus cases. Since January 3, the school has reported a total of 174 people with positive rapid test results that they have shared with the university’s .
Despite the end of the provincial health order on Monday, Mount Allison has opted to keep certain measures in place until at least April 30, including wearing masks indoors, and asking people who test positive and their close contacts to self-isolate for at least five days. Masks are required outdoors on campus until March 14.
The school continues to distribute packages of KN95 respirators to students via the Mt A bookstore, but says that after March 14, requests for mask supply will be considered only if supply is available.… Continue
Friday on TR: New system to report sexual misconduct; municipal reform committee meets; storm wallops N.B.
On today’s Tantramar Report:
Mount Allison University has launched a new way for people to report sexual misconduct, harassment or assault on campus.
The move comes as part of an ongoing effort to respond to decades-long concerns about sexual violence on the Mount A campus.
In November 2020, then-student Michelle Roy posted an image of herself on social media, in graduation attire and holding a sign accusing the school of supporting rapists.
Since then, the university has brought in a third-party organization to respond to and support survivors of sexual violence, commissioned an independent review of its practices, and hired Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Coordinator, Dr. Tasia Alexopolous.
CHMA reporter Erica Butler called up Dr. Alexopolous this week to find out more about REES, and how it might impact sexual violence on campus.
Also on today’s show: Sackville town council’s municipal reform committee held its first ever-meeting this week. Erica Butler was there and brings us some highlights.
Plus more local news and information:
Tantramar Climate Change Week
The 10th annual Tantramar Climate Change Week starts on Saturday with an information booth at the Sackville Farmers’ Market.
A series of free online events organized by Eos Eco-Energy takes place throughout the week, including a climate change virtual trivia night next Friday, Feb. 11. You can find the full schedule online at eosecoenergy.com.
Friday on TR: Amalgamation process begins; NB returns to Level 2; First Nation asks for help finding missing woman
Today’s feature on Tantramar Report:
The province has appointed the facilitator who will oversee the amalgamation of Sackville, Dorchester and surrounding areas.
Chad Peters is currently CEO of a Moncton-based communications firm, and former manager with Southwestern Energy Resources, the company behind controversial fracking exploration in New Brunswick in the early 2010s.
Peters is also a former staffer in the Progressive Conservative legislative office, and ran for the PCs in a provincial by-election in Moncton East in 2007. He had announced his candidacy for mayor of Moncton in January 2020, but did not run in the 2021 election. Peters had his first meeting with Sackville staff and council this week.
CHMA’s Erica Butler called up Sackville Town Councillor Bill Evans, who has been a vocal opponent of amalgamation, to hear about the first meeting.
Also on Tantramar Report:
Missing woman from St. Mary’s First Nation
Saint Mary’s First Nation has asked for support in locating Erin Maureen Brooks.
The 38-year-old woman was last seen on Dec. 27 at St. Mary’s Smoke Shop in Fredericton, according to the Indigenous community.
She’s described as five-foot-two-inches tall and 115 pounds, with multiple tattoos, including the word “Boo” on the left side of her chest.
In 2018, Brooks shared a post on social media as part of a campaign for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, stating that if she ever went missing, “someone took me against my will or worse.… Continue
Wednesday on TR: Dorchester’s Bill Steele talks heritage buildings and Sackville’s Wood Block
On today’s Tantramar Report:
We feature a conversation with Dorchester’s Bill Steele.
A transplant from Toronto and heritage building enthusiast, Steele bought the Dorchester Jail in 2017 and now operates it as an AirBnB. Last March, Steele took a tour of the Wood Block building on Bridge Street in Sackville, home to local restaurants, apartments, and the old Imperial Theatre. As we wait on news of a possible sale of the Wood Block, we check in with Steele to hear about his experience of the building and his thoughts on heritage properties in the Tantramar region.
Plus, more local news and information:
14 known active cases at Mount Allison, rapid test reporting explodes in province
14 people in the Mount Allison community have self-reported active cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday morning.
In an update published online, the university says that four of the cases are on-campus and 10 are off-campus, and that all cases are managing symptoms at home.
The university is asking anyone in the community who tests positive to report their result to the school’s vaccination and testing verification clerk, in addition to reporting it online to the government of New Brunswick.
Since January 3, 38 cases have been self-reported to Mount Allison, according to the university. Mount Allison says it will provide a weekly campus and community COVID-19 update every Tuesday.… Continue
Dornan’s plea as NB moves to level 3: “we just simply cannot tolerate 220 inpatients with COVID.”
New Brunswick is moving into Level 3 of its winter plan, with slight variations, tonight at midnight. The move comes as Public Health announces the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has grown to 104, with 9 people in an ICU and 3 people on ventilators.
Four more people succumbed to the disease yesterday, bringing the death toll in New Brunswick to 178.
Case counts, though admittedly underreported, continue to climb. There are over 6600 active cases confirmed through PCR testing in the province. More than half of those are in two zones, Zone 2, the Saint John region, has over 2400 cases, and Zone 1 has nearly 1900 cases.
At a conference Thursday afternoon, Premier Higgs stated several times his unhappiness with the move to maximum level restrictions. “Moving to level three was never something I wanted to do,” said the Premier, “and I really hate to take this next step.”
Higgs said the level 3 restrictions would be in place for 16 days, from midnight tonight until midnight on Sunday January 30. The move, he said, was being made in the wake of Tuesday’s projections about Omicron hospitalizations hitting over 200 by the end of the month, without a substantial reduction in the rate of close contacts among New Brunswickers.
Higgs said he had no choice but to bring in the more severe restrictions, to prevent a sudden wave of hospitalizations from overwhelming an already stretched system. He also held out hope that the measures would be short-lived.… Continue
Friday on TR: The struggle for childcare workers in the Omicron wave; Level 3 restrictions coming at midnight
Coming up on today’s Tantramar Report:
With schools in online learning mode, daycares have been busier than ever helping families where working from home is not an option. CHMA’s David Gordon Koch speaks with an early childhood educator about what life has been like so far in the Omicron wave.
And also:
New Brunswick is moving into Level 3 of its winter plan, with slight variations, tonight at midnight. The move comes as Public Health announces the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has grown to 104, with 9 people in an ICU and 3 people on ventilators.
Four more people succumbed to the disease yesterday, bringing the death toll in New Brunswick to 178.
Case counts, though admittedly underreported, continue to climb. There are over 6600 active cases confirmed through PCR testing in the province. More than half of those are in two zones… Zone 2 – the Saint John region – has over 2400 cases, and Zone 1, has nearly 1900 cases.
UPDATE: FARMERS’ MARKET DELAYED SATURDAY, 2pm-4pm
Due to the forecasted Friday night storm, the Sackville Farmers’ Market is delaying opening tomorrow in order to let vendors and customers get dug out. The market will run from 2pm to 4pm, at its winter location on Lorne Street.
Along with grocery stores and other retail, the market is not affected by new level 3 restrictions coming into effect at midnight tonight.… Continue
At the beginning of a “tidal wave” of Omicron, Public Health asks people to reduce contacts without additional restrictions
The news was dire in a technical briefing yesterday from New Brusnwick’s department of health.
Mathieu Chalifoux, lead COVID-19 epidemiologist with Public Health, presented projections for case counts and hospitalizations into the next two months, showing a steep curve peaking at the end of January or beginning of February.
Chalifoux said over 5000 New Brunswickers can be expected to develop the disease daily by the end of the month. ”Over a five day period, this would be about 25,000 individuals, assuming 2.3 individuals per household. This could mean over 7% or approximately 55,000 people isolating at any given moment,” the epidemiologist warned.
Unlike the last projections presented by the province, these account for the increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant which is now dominant in the province, but there have been some changes since the projections were created. In early January, the province started to limit eligibility for testing. Those limits could mean official PCR numbers come in lower than the stated projections, unless results from rapid tests are included.
The province has started to report the results from rapid tests that are being voluntarily submitted by those who test positive with the take-home test kits. On Tuesday, there were 191 new positive PCR cases announced, along with 842 new positive rapid test results.
Chalifoux acknowledged that case counts based on PCR testing are underreported, but increasingly the more important metric is the number of people that will need to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19.… Continue
Wednesday on TR: Mitton’s call for more measures; false hospital rumours and surveillance cameras in Sackville; dire projections for Omicron wave in NB
On today’s Tantramar Report:
We recap the dire projections shared by New Brunswick public health epidemiologist Mathieu Chalifoux at a briefing on Tuesday, and the explanation from medical officer of health Jennifer Russell on why the province will not yet be moving to level 3 of its winter plan.
We bring you some highlights from Monday’s Sackville town council meeting, including words of caution from Mayor Shawn Mesheau about rumours of an imminent closure of the Sackville hospital, and plans to upgrade town facilities with facial recognition cameras.
We hear from some local parents as classes resume for another two weeks of online schooling for their kids.
We also hear from Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton about why she thinks New Brunswick should be upping public health restrictions as case counts skyrocket.
And last but not least, with extremely cold temperatures hitting New Brunswick on Tuesday, NB Power asked residents to reduce their energy consumption at peak hours. The utility says that during periods of peak energy demand, it uses its “most expensive and least green energy to power New Brunswick.” Peak demand generally happens between 6am and 9am and between 4pm and 8pm.
To help avoid using peak energy, NB Power recommends residents turn down the heat in rooms they’re not using, take shorter showers or move them to later in the day.… Continue
Friday on TR: Sackville CAO on the unknowns of amalgamation; Resident turned away from rapid test pickup
On Friday’s Tantramar Report, we talk to CAO Jamie Burke about the knowns and unknowns when it comes to Sackville’s impending amalgamation with Dorchester and surrounding areas.
We’ll also hear from one Sackville resident who was turned away from a rapid test pick up site in Port Elgin on Wednesday, the day the province announced it would no longer hand out test kits to anyone without symptoms and an appointment.
And we hear from CHMA’s new local reporter David Gordon Koch about how local Sackville institutions are being affected by isolating workers.
That, and these other stories:
Winterfest cancellation, by-law changes on council agenda for Monday
Sackville town council will have its first meeting of the year on Monday, January 10th. Council will be asked to approve changes to the street traffic and parks bylaw, and hear about pandemic related changes to upcoming town events, such as the cancellation of the Winterfest festival, which was slated for February.
Southeast Regional Service Commission planner Lori Bickford will present 2021 figures on building permits in the town, which have more than doubled compared to 2020.
The commission issued 52 permits in 2021, with a total construction value of $5.4 million. In 2020, they issued 44 permits worth $2.1 million.
Mt A closes campus to general public
Mount Allison has announced it will be closing its campus to anyone but students, staff and faculty in an effort to control the spread of the Omicron variant. … Continue
Wednesday on TR: Higham on Horizon’s newest hire to help the Sackville hospital, and Mesheau’s reaction to forced amalgamation
Listen to Tantramar Report for the following stories:
Horizon Health hires a former administrator to help restore service at the Sackville hospital
Horizon Health has hired a recently retired executive director and former nurse to help retain and recruit health care workers at the Sackville Memorial Hospital. Nancy Parker has taken on the interim, part-time role at the hospital.
Members of the Rural Health Action Committee are confident that Parker is a solid choice for the job, according to co-chair John Higham. Tantramar Report spoke with Higham on Tuesday to find out more.
Mayor Shawn Mesheau on forced amalgamation
Just before Tantramar Report closed up shop for 2021, we spoke with Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau to get his reaction to news from the provincial government, announcing they had ignored a proposed alternative to forced amalgamation of Sackville, Dorchester, and surrounding areas.
As we embark on the year that will see the town of Sackville dissolved and reformed as a larger entity, the so-called Entity 40 — we revisit that conversation on Tantramar Report.
Mount A hires new chaplain
Mount Allison University has hired a new chaplain. Reverend Ellie Hummel will be joining Mount Allison as multi-faith chaplain and spiritual care coordinator starting on March 7th. Hummel is an ordained minister with the United Church of Canada. She previously worked as chaplain and coordinator of the multi-faith and spiritual centre at Concordia University in Montreal, and before that oversaw congregations in rural Saskatchewan.… Continue