Hear this story as reported on Tantramar Report:
At a government briefing on Tuesday afternoon, Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell announced 14 new cases of COVID-19 in various health zones in the province.
Zone 1 has four new cases, all travel-related. Two more cases in each of the Saint John and Fredericton health zones were also travel related. The other eight new cases are in the Edmundston region, and are all contacts of previous cases.
There are now 126 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and Russell says there are well over 1000 people in self-isolation. Most of those people are in Zone 4, the Edmundston region, which has 100 active cases of COVID-19.
“Public health suspects that 82% of the cases in that area come from the COVID-19 variant first reported in the United Kingdom,” said Russell on Tuesday.
On Monday at midnight, the area designated at the red level in around Edmundston was expanded to include Grand Falls, St. Leonard, New Denmark Drummond and Four Falls. When it was announced last week, public health said the red phase would be put into effect in the Edmundston area for 4 days, as a circuit breaker. On Tuesday, neither Russell nor health minister Dorothy Shephard could say when the new, expanded red phase will be lifted.
“The circuit breaker for Zone 4 is working,” said Russell, “but more time is needed to see its full effect. We will continue to assess its impact and determine when and how restrictions can be modified.”
ASTRAZENECA SUPPLY TO BE USED FOR PEOPLE 55 OR OVER ONLY
Turning to vaccines, Russell reiterated her position that the risk of developing blood clots as a result of the AstraZeneca vaccine remains very small, much smaller than the risk of developing serious illness or dying from COVID-19. That said, New Brunswick has already announced it will follow National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) guidelines and suspend use of the vaccine for anyone under 55.
“AstraZeneca vaccine will continue to be used,” said Russell, “but only for those of the age of 55 and older.” Russell tried to provide some reassurance for those over 55 who might have concerns about the vaccine. “I can assure you it is safe, and I would have no problem recommending it or taking it myself,” said Russell. “I am confident that this is a prudent and safe approach that will enable us to move forward with our vaccination program.”
The switch in designated age groups for the AstraZeneca vaccine has meant some changes for the vaccine rollout. Minister Shephard explained that first responder clinics will shift over to using the PfizerBioNTech vaccine, and staff clinics for the remaining 10 high schools in the province will use either Pfizer or Moderna. Shephard also indicated there would be a delay in vaccinations for remaining high school school staff, which could mean a delay in reopening those particular schools to full-time, in person learning.
The province will use its current remaining AstraZeneca supply in a clinic for people 55 and older in the Saint John area happening on April 1. People in the area are being asked to register online or by phone.
“Saint John was chosen for this clinic as that is where the current vaccine supply is located,” said Shephard. “More AstraZeneca clinics in other zones will be scheduled for people 55 and older in the next week, as we expect to receive 30,000 more doses.“
BUBBLE NOT AT RISK, BUT NO GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR EARLY NS BORDER OPENING
Reporters asked Minister Shephard about the impact of the current outbreak and the increased risk of variants on the plans to fully reestablish the Atlantic Bubble on April 19.
“We don’t think that the Atlantic bubble is at risk,” said Shephard. “But as Dr. Russell said, when you have over 1000 people isolating, we don’t know what’s going to come out of that. This is the variant, which is highly transmissible. So we’re just monitoring on a day to day basis. The premiers are staying in touch. And our goal is to get there.”
On Tuesday, Nova Scotia announced three new cases of COVID-19 bringing their total up to 24 active cases. Back on March 19, Nova Scotia stopped requiring 14 days of self-isolation for people entering their province from New Brunswick.
CHMA asked Shephard and Russell to explain the argument behind continuing the border restrictions with Nova Scotia.
Shephard said border restrictions were New Brunswick’s key to success so far in the pandemic, though she acknowledged that, “it’s not been an easy time for families, loved ones, to have to stand by these restrictions.”
She also indicated the remaining border restrictions with Nova Scotia were partly in place to protect Nova Scotians.
“With regards to Nova Scotia,” said Shephard, “look, I know that their cases are down. I’m going to proudly say that Nova Scotia has us at their front and the Atlantic Ocean at their back. And so we carry a lot of responsibility in protecting them. So I don’t see our restrictions coming down any faster than the dates that we had proposed.”
Back in mid-March when Nova Scotia made their decision to remove 14-day isolation requirements for people travelling from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin said he saw, “no reason to wait” to lift the restriction at the provincial border. Nova Scotia Medical Officer of Health Robert Strang pointed out that the two provinces had similar epidemiology and that he hoped New Brunswick would also consider lifting the border restrictions.
Read more about the Nova Scotia announcement:
Dr. Russell weighed in on the question to say that the epidemiology teams from all four Atlantic provinces are meeting every week, and, “are continuing to assess the situations in all four provinces. They take into account what is happening in other jurisdictions, and they are very aware of the risks of the variants in other jurisdictions,” said Russell.
“When people move, COVID moves, a variant moves,” said Russell. “We just want to be as cautious as we possibly can be, knowing that with the variants, the transmissibility means that an outbreak could be in all four provinces at the same time, if we’re not careful.”
