Another person has died from COVID-19 in New Brunswick. A person in their 70s living at the Pavillon Beau-Lieu special care home in Grand Falls died in hospital.
The province announced 11 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. Three were in Zone 1, one of which is under investigation. The other eight new cases are in the Saint John, Fredericton, Edmundston and Bathurst regions, and have all been traced to travel or contact with previous cases.
There are now 145 active cases of COVID-19 in New Brunswick, with 21 of them in Zone 1.
“COVID HAD TO FIND US EVENTUALLY”
The town of Amherst shared some bad news Wednesday: one of their employees has tested positive for COVID-19.
Interim CAO Jason MacDonald says in a news release that “employees who have potentially been exposed are getting tested and are self-isolating.” Employees impacted are receiving time off with pay, says MacDonald, and other town employees are working from home.
In the same news release, Mayor David Kogon says, “this is not an unanticipated event. COVID had to find us eventually.”
This is the 9th case of COVID-19 in the Cumberland Health Network in Nova Scotia, and the only currently active case. In the rest of Nova Scotia, the surge in COVID-19 continues, with that province reporting its highest daily number of new cases yet: 175 new cases on Wednesday. Nova Scotia now has just over 1200 active cases of COVID-19.
Nova Scotia’s testing is still operating at a breakneck pace: that province reported over 11,000 new tests on Wednesday, while New Brunswick reported just shy of 1,600. Of those, 378 tests were reported in Zone 1.
DEATH FROM ASTRAZENECA VACCINE IN NEW BRUNSWICK
Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell and Health Minister Dorothy Shephard held a special briefing Wednesday to report another death in New Brunswick. This time a person died with a rare blood clot connected to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The person was in their 60s and received the shot in mid-April, a couple of weeks after the province implemented a policy of limiting use of Astrazeneca to anyone 55 or older. The person developed symptoms 7 days after their shot, went to an emergency room and was admitted to hospital. The person died in hospital two days later.
This is the second case of vaccine induced thrombosis with thrombocytopenia (VITT) in New Brunswick, and Russell says there are two other cases currently under investigation.
About 44,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered in New Brunswick so far. Across Canada, hundreds of thousands of doses have been administered, and millions have been administered around the world. But with 4 possible cases out of 44,000, New Brunswick’s frequency of VITT cases seems out of synch with the commonly quoted odds of 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 250,000.
Russell says the information is evolving, and New Brunswick may adjust its policies in the coming weeks.
“Initially, we had information from Europe, we had information from the UK. And now, in real time, we’re able to gain new information here in Canada,” said Russell. “As you know, Alberta just announced a death yesterday. I believe Quebec had a death. These are not unexpected outcomes based on the statistics. But they are tragic, and they are sad, and we take them very seriously.”
“We will continue to evolve as the information becomes clear to us, each passing day and each passing week,” said Russell.
CARDY QUESTIONS NACI ADVICE
At a briefing the day before, Education minister Dominic Cardy chimed in on the topic of vaccines, and advised New Brunswickers to ignore advice coming from NACI, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which recently called mRNA vaccines such as Moderna and Pfizer, “preferred vaccines”.
Cardy gave his NACI advice together in a sentence also condemning “anti maskers” and “people undermining faith in science.”
The NACI committee is made up of 14 doctors and other professionals in the fields of pediatrics, infectious diseases, immunology, pharmacy, nursing, epidemiology, pharmacoeconomics, social science and public health.
The current recommendation from NACI, which has been criticized for creating some confusion, is that AstraZeneca may be offered to people 30 and older only if the person does not want to wait for an mRNA vaccine, and has had the benefits of vaccination and relative risks of VITT explained to them.
The gist of the NACI recommendation seems to be that if access to an mRNA vaccine is imminent while the risk of contracting COVID-19 is low, then it is preferable to wait for an mRNA vaccine.
Despite Cardy’s strong objection, it’s a logic that appears to be being followed in New Brunswick.
On Wednesday Russell said this province would continue to offer AstraZeneca to anyone 55 and older. When asked about the lower age limit for AstraZeneca in Nova Scotia, Russell pointed to the current outbreak in that province, and the higher risk for contracting the disease there. She stressed the use of AstraZeneca is a choice. “We will continue to use AstraZeneca as an option,” said Russell, “that New Brunswickers may choose, or not.”
VACCINATION ROLLOUT TO RAMP UP, AZ REFUSAL NOT AN ISSUE
Minister Shephard said she didn’t think there was a problem with people refusing AstraZeneca in New Brunswick.
“I don’t know that we’ve had anyone refuse the AZ vaccine,” said Shephard. “What I do know is that there are significant clinics out there right now for Pfizer and Moderna. People have options when they go to the website to book and they have options when they call.”
Shephard also put a plug in for the province’s vaccine rollout, which on Tuesday expanded to include people 50 and older, as well as people 16 and older with two or more chronic conditions. The rollout is expected to pick up considerably in the next four weeks, with the province expecting upwards of 40,000 people per week to be vaccinated. In the past 7 days, just 26,000 people have received a shot.
After the new 50 and older age limit was announced Tuesday, demand spiked.
“Overnight, we had more than 10,000 people registered to be vaccinated,” said Shephard. “This is a one day record. Last week we had around 14,000 people register for clinics being offered by Vitalité and Horizon health networks.”
Shephard thanked those who have taken steps to get a shot. “If you have already registered for an appointment, or have received your COVID-19 vaccine, thank you,” she said Wednesday. “You have taken an important step forward in protecting not just yourself, but those around you.”
