There were 6 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the province yesterday. Five of those cases were in the Edmundston region and all were related to previous cases. One new case was in the Mirimachi region, and was related to travel.
Zone 1 had no new cases of COVID-19 for the fourth day in a row. That’s especially good news since one recent case, which was connected to both the Mount Allison and Moncton High School communities, was determined to be the B-117 or UK variant of COVID-19. Since that case was announced, public health has reported 8 new cases in Zone 1, but no new cases of the variant.
There are now nine active cases of COVID-19 in Zone 1. Province-wide, there are 114 active cases.
Testing numbers in the province have been going up. For the past 4 days New Brunswick has been testing over 1000 people per day, possibly due to the availability of asymptomatic testing in the Edmundston area. Public health announced Sunday it would extend that availability in the Edmundston and Grand Falls areas.
In Zone 1, just 226 tests were conducted on Sunday, down slightly from 316 on Saturday.
VACCINATION UPDATE: WEEK OVER WEEK BIG INCREASE IN FIRST DOSES ADMINISTERED
In the past week, 26,159 people have received their first dose of a vaccine. That’s almost as many first doses as the previous three weeks combined.
On Sunday, the province updated its numbers to show that 75,046 people are now vaccinated with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That’s 9.6% of the population.
Supply doesn’t seem to be an issue, with 35,849 doses of the vaccine in the province’s possession, waiting to be administered. That’s about 30% of the supply that has been delivered by the federal government.
Health department spokesperson Shawn Berry said via email that this was the, “first full week of vaccinations and rollout is proceeding well.”
Over 200 pharmacies in the province are now received weekly shipments of the vaccine. Two of those are in Sackville: the Corner Drug Store and Jean Coutu.
Sackville pharmacies quickly worked through their first shipments, received last Tuesday. Corner Drug Store pharmacist Charles Beaver said he expects to received 270 doses this week, and Jean Coutu is expecting to receive 60 doses. All the appointments for these expected doses were filled up within hours of the announcement of expanding eligibility criteria last week.
As of Wednesday, the province opened up pharmacy vaccination eligibility to anyone 75 or older, as well as cross border commuters, rotational workers, and truck drivers.
There are likely hundreds of cross-border commuters living in the Sackville area, which could help explain why the 330 expected doses to be administered via local pharmacies where accounted for so quickly.
The health department’s Shawn Berry says local vaccine dose allotments are “based on Canadian census data on demographics in the regions, the number of pharmacies and the number of immunizers in an area.”
He said the health department was, “monitoring uptake and will make adjustments as necessary, but at this time, the volume of vaccine available to us remains limited.”
As of Sunday’s report, New Brunswick has used 70% of its current supply of vaccine doses.
If the pharmacy you contact first doesn’t have availability over the next week, Berry suggests contacting another nearby pharmacy to find out if they have availability. For Sackvillians, that could mean heading to neighbouring towns and communities.
The Corner Drug Store also operates an online registration form which allows people to register in advance, and the pharmacy will then contact you for appointment once you are eligible.
Vaccinations for high school staff wrap up this week, and the province says in the coming weeks, additional vaccination clinics will be available for staff in elementary and middle schools, including bus drivers, and for early childhood service providers and child-care staff.
