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.
“As a province, we need to get to the root of the problem, so we don’t have to repeatedly do this,” said Higgs. “That is why we’ve been precise here on the two week break… One thing we must understand and we must be committed to, is that we are not going to go through 2022 with our province in lockdown.”
Familiar measures
Many of the measures coming into effect tonight will be familiar to New Brunswickers.
The single household bubble is back, with allowances for caregivers, single people in need of support, and children who need care or help with online schooling.
No public gatherings are permitted, and gyms, entertainment centres, spas and salons must close.
Restaurants can offer drive-thru, takeout or delivery options only.
One significant change from the previously announced winter plan is that retail establishments will be able to remain open, under level 2 restrictions which see them at 50% capacity, and enforcing masking and distancing.
Group sports will be restricted to household bubbles only, as will individual sports like skiing and hiking, where distancing must be maintained with those outside your bubble.
And learning-from-home will be extended by one additional week, to January 31, 2022.
Horizon CEO John Dornan was at Thursday’s news conference, and had this to say in response to a reporter question about how health care workers are faring:
“I can’t help but preface my remarks to say that we have been up here twice, three times this week with an ask. It’s with an ask that we go to level three. We are suffering in our health care system, and we just simply cannot tolerate 220 inpatients with COVID.”
Dornan said workers numbers are already down due to stress, COVID infections and contacts. He said health care staff are being asked to come in even with COVID infections, to help care for COVID-positive patients, which is in turn exacerbating the stress workers are under.
“We’re here with our cap in hand, to ask the community to follow us and step up and reduce contacts,” said Dornan. “And I don’t do that shyly. We are asking New Brunswickers to reduce contacts significantly… by 20 to 30%. That will take the significant bulk away of those 220 admissions.”
“I really believe that our community will be behind us,” said Dornan, “so that we can look after New Brunswickers, so that fewer people come into our hospitals and die.”
“Give us two weeks of your best effort at reducing contact,” pleaded Dornan. “We can make a difference.”
Vaccination update: boosters hit 27.3%, unvaxxed at 13.4%
Vaccination levels in New Brunswick continue to creep up, with booster shots seeing a significant increase in the past week.
Over 50,000 booster shots were administered in the past week, and 27.3% of the population now have three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Just 2200 people got their second shot last week, and about 4400 got their first shot. That leaves about 106,000 people, or 13.4% of the population, completely unvaccinated, which includes kids under 5 who are not yet eligible.
Reporters asked Premier Higgs on Thursday if he was considering measures to compel more vaccinations, such as the health tax currently under discussion in Quebec. Higgs said he wanted to discuss possible strategies fully with his cabinet, but also dismissed the idea of a tax, seeming to favour placing limitations of what people who are unvaccinated can do. Higgs said he would opt “to make life increasingly uncomfortable and more difficult for those who are able to be vaccinated, but choose not to be.”
“We cannot continue to revolve around an unvaccinated population that is having such a significant impact on 90% of the people in this province,” said the Premier. “I’ve asked for all indications from different departments of where we can tighten the restrictions on those that refuse to help protect the masses.”
Higgs calls for help, offers incentives for nurses with experience
In Thursday’s conference Premier Higgs also made the unusual move of putting out a call for help, “from anyone with nursing experience who is not currently working in the healthcare system or is available to help.”
“Our frontline health care professionals are struggling to provide care to patients amidst very challenging working conditions,” said Higgs. “This includes anyone that has experienced in vaccinations who can offer assistance at this time when we’re going to try to get as many people boasted as possible in the shortest time as possible. We want to hear from you if you have these qualifications.”
The department of health has a Critical Care Nurse Deployment Initiative and is asking for nurses to register.
Higgs said the province is looking for retired critical care nurses, nurses with critical care experience who are not working currently working in the system, casual or part time nurses with critical care experience, or nurses working in units experiencing a reduction in services due to the shutdown.
Higgs also specified “medical professionals from other countries living in New Brunswick or Canada that could qualify to assist at this time.”
The Critical Care Nurse Deployment Initiative is offering financial incentives for nurses who register, such as a $1000 sign up bonus and up to $1000 per week in wage premiums. Details are available at gnb.ca/covidcriticalcare.
Small business grant program is back
In tandem with the level 3 announcement, Higgs also announced the return of a small business grant program. Certain businesses who can show revenue loss can get up to $10,000 to help offset those losses. Eligible businesses include:
- restaurants (excluding quick-service restaurants with drive-thru options), caterers, and drinking establishments;
- retail stores;
- gyms and fitness facilities;
- personal services (barbers, hair stylists and spas);
- and entertainment centres.
Applications can be made online through the Opportunities NB website beginning on January 24.
