Public Health has listed two new potential exposure sites in Sackville. There was a possible exposure on a Maritime Bus trip from Halifax to Sackville arriving on December 15, and another a few days previous, at the Tantramar Memorial Civic Centre on Sunday, December 12 between 6:30pm and 9pm.
Anyone who may have been exposed to COVID-19 at one of those sites is asked to monitor for symptoms. If symptoms develop, people who are vaccinated should follow standard procedure and request a PCR lab test, with no requirement to isolate while awaiting results. For those who are not fully vaccinated, if symptoms develop, they should self-isolate until test results are back. Anyone who is asymptomatic may also use a point of care rapid test to screen themselves regularly.
UPDATE: The Anglophone East School District has announced that Tantramar Regional High School will have an operational day on Thursday, December, 23, with students learning online from home and staff reporting to school, due to a COVID exposure.
Students are being asked to do daily rapid tests for the next five days to help screen out any possible contact cases. Potential exposures at the school happened on December 8, 9, 10, 13 and 14. Public Health is asking students to test themselves daily until December 28, or else remain isolated until then.
Spike in cases prompts call to keep gatherings “as small as possible”
The province reported a whopping 237 new cases on Wednesday afternoon, exceeding estimates made just the day before based on a model of the current trend in New Brunswick cases. At a Tuesday briefing, Dr. Jennifer Russell said modelling predicted the province could reach 250 new daily cases by early January.
86 of the current 1406 active cases have been determined to be the Omicron variant. 40 people are in hospital, with 17 in intensive care.
57 of today’s new cases are in Zone 1, and there are now 288 active cases of COVID-19 in Zone 1.
Wednesday’s press release urges New Brunswickers to “keep gatherings as small as possible during the holidays,” to slow the spread of COVID-19. Additional measures are set to come into effect on Monday, December 27, but Health Minister Dorothy Shephard urged people to “keep the number of contacts you have as small as you can, beginning today.”
Shephard also asked that people use rapid tests to screen themselves before gatherings. “The virus is in every corner of our province,” says Shephard, “and the only way we can slow the spread is by each of us doing our part.”
Booster eligibility expanded
The province announced an expansion of booster dose eligibility immediate family members of anyone working in a long term care facility, hospital, or school, as long as they are 18 or older and had their second dose at least 158 days ago. People working in child-care facilities and their immediate family members are similarly eligible.
Mask advice updated
Public Health guidance on masks has also been updated to ask that people wear a well-fitted, non-medical-type, three-layered mask or a two-layered mask with a filter. Non-medical masks can be used where masks are required, but in situations where there is a high level of community spread or prolonged contact with others, public health is recommending surgical, KN-95, or N-95 (non-ventilated) masks.
