Premier Blaine Higgs and Dr. Jennifer Russell gave their weekly COVID update Thursday afternoon, and announced another extension to the circuit breaker measures that are in place in parts of Zones 1, 3 and 4.
That means Sackvillians will be living with another week of single household bubbles, and Halloweeners will be asked to remain in groups of their household only as they go trick-or-treating.
One more health zone has also been brought under circuit breaker rules. The Premier announced parts of Zone 2, the Saint John region would start a circuit breaker this week.
The province announced another 69 new cases of COVID-19 in the province yesterday, with 23 of those in Zone 1. Of the Zone 1 cases, 18 are under investigation and five are related to travel. There are now 216 active cases in Zone 1.
Across the border, the Cumberland Health Network reported three new cases yesterday, and have an active case total of 30.
Booster shots to open up to those over 64
Dr. Jennifer Russell announced the next eligible group for COVID-19 booster shots. As of Monday, people 65 and older and school personnel will be able to book an appointment to receive a booster dose if six months have passed since their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, said Russell. In addition, anyone who received one or two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be able to book an appointment to receive an mRNA booster if 28 days have passed since their second dose.
Booster eligibility will eventually open up to more people, said Russell. “To date, we believe that most vaccinated New Brunswickers are still fully protected by the vaccine, as less than six months have passed since they were fully vaccinated. But public health is aware that boosters will eventually be required and we will have a plan in place to make this happen.”
Russell also said the province was making preparations for the eventual approval of a COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11. Once federal authorities give the green light, Russell says 54,000 kids in New Brunswick will be eligible. But not all of their parents are on board with the idea of a COVID shot for kids.
“We know that about 50% of parents are ready and waiting for that vaccine for their children at this time,” said Russell. Referring to the 50% who are not on board with the kids COVID-19 vaccine, “we do know that parents have a lot of questions that they need answered. So part of our plan is going to be making sure that we have a rollout that involves having factual information available to all parents.”
Russell said she expects local health care providors to play a key role in the engagement of concerned parents.
Contact tracing behind, and community transmission in unnamed areas of province
Dr. Jennifer Russell also addressed a question about contact tracing. Nearly all recent cases in Zone 1 have been of unknown origin when reported, meaning that they are not obviously related to travel or to close contact with existing cases when they are discovered. Theoretically, many of those cases would be traced within a number of days, to help identify further close contacts and cases.
The province’s COVID-19 dashboard keeps track of the origin of cases, but the numbers don’t seem to reflect reality. For example, there are over 2500 cases listed as “under investigation” on the dashboard, and only 549 active cases as of Thursday in the province. That means nearly 2000 of the cases that the province lists as under investigaton are actually fully recovered from the disease.
One might expect that with such a large number of cases of unknown origin, that community spread numbers would be growing on the dashboard. Quite the contrary, the number hasn’t budged since the end of June.
Dr. Russell answered a question from CTV reporter Laura Brown about contact tracing efforts at Public Health on Thursday, and talked about community transmission in several areas of the province:
“Obviously, the higher the case count, the more difficult the contact tracing becomes,” said Russell, “but the contact tracing is still occurring. And we’ve utilized many extra resources to make that happen.”
“We do see community transmission in several areas around the province,” said Russell. “So that is something that we’re dealing with.”
There’s no indication in the province’s daily updates or its dashboard that community transmission is occurring or where it occurring. CHMA has reached out to the department of health for clarification.
