The Saint John (Zone 2) and Fredericton (Zone 3) regions will return to the less stringent orange level of Covid-19 reopening as of midnight Tuesday.
The Moncton area (Zone 1) remains in the red level, and the Edmundston region (Zone 4) remains under lockdown.
“My gratitude to the residents of Zone 4, who entered lockdown on Saturday night. The restrictions imposed in lockdown are not easy to bear,” New Brunswick’s top doctor Jennifer Russell said. “These actions are helping to contain the spread of the virus.”
Russell said outside of Edmundston, there are signs things are moving in the right direction.
In Zones 2 and 3, the growth of new cases has slowed. That allows the Saint John and Fredericton health zones to move back to the Orange level at midnight on Tuesday.
“These zones will have stayed in the red level for a full week. This has allowed us to complete a full week assessment and gauge the impact of our measures. But be aware we will continue to monitor very closely as the incubation period is 14 days,” she said.
Russell credited the contact tracers who worked 16-hour days for many weeks, including over the weekend. Because of successful contact tracing and New Brunswickers’ cooperation, now there’s “less concern” for the potential of a community spread.
She said officials had moved the zones quickly to red level to “get ahead of the risk,” which includes not knowing whether links could be made between cases and if there was possibility for community transmission.
“Because we’ve done a successful contact tracing, we’ve eliminated the worry about that risk. That doesn’t mean that it can’t come again. That doesn’t mean that we can’t have community transmission at any time and anywhere in the province,” she said. “But right now, our contact tracers have gotten ahead of these cases and made those links.”
She urges New Brunswickers to keep getting tested even if they have only one mild symptom.
In the Moncton and Edmundston regions, Russell said, “we need to see significant improvements in both these zones before we can consider any change in status.”
Meanwhile, Russell said the status of Zones 5,6,7 is being reviewed but will stay at Orange for now.
If the current trends hold, Public Health could recommend moving those three zones to yellow in the coming days.
Health Minister Dorothy Shephard said things are looking up in the education system, too. It’s now been five days without a new confirmed positive case “in any school community,” she said, adding there are no longer positive cases affecting childcare facilities either.
New Brunswick Public Health reported 27 new cases of COVID -19 on Monday. Four were in Zone 1, one was in Zone 2, three were in one 3, and 19 were in Zone 4. Six people are in hospital, with three in intensive care. There are now 348 active cases in the province.
Russell also reported another death due to Covid-19 of an individual aged between 70-79 who was a resident at Parkland Saint John’s Lily Court of Tucker Hall. This is the 14th death since the pandemic began.
Russell said that the collaborative relationship between Public Health and the Covid cabinet committee is “unique” in Canada. She said that has enabled the province to “restrain the growth of the virus.”
However, she said travel-related cases will remain an issue, and that’s why travel restrictions have been increased over the weekend.
“The resurgence of Covid-19 cases in New Brunswick over the last month has been alarming. But in most cases there is no mystery in how it has spread,” she said. “Obviously, the cases come across the border not knowing they have Covid-19. They may or may not have symptoms, they may or may not self isolate appropriately and safely.”
Public Health is also concerned about the U.K. and South African variants of the virus, both of which now have been confirmed present in Atlantic Canada, though none in New Brunswick.
Shephard said the province is increasing enforcement of the Emergency Measures Act.
“Most of our focus is on businesses and organizations, because if they’re doing the right things, that in turn protects their staff and customers, and goes a long way to protecting our community as a whole,” she said, adding businesses affected by the pandemic should contact Business Navigator for assistance.
She also mentioned the arrests of anti-masks protesters in Moncton recently.
“The issue is not the protest,” she said. “People have the right to protest, and if they’re doing so lawfully, we will support their right to do so. That was the case in Woodstock this weekend where a protest also took place. In that instance, protesters wore masks and maintained physical distancing.”
“If people are not respecting the mandatory order and putting people at risk, I know the police will take action,” she said. “We understand that people are frustrated. But putting others at risk is not acceptable.”
Meanwhile, the vaccination campaign continues, with immunization clinics planned for 20 long-term care facilities this week to administer the first dose of vaccine for over 750 people. Many healthcare workers are also getting their second dose this week.
“But we still have months to go before we reach that light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
She called on New Brunswickers to be patient as the province doesn’t have the vaccines in sufficient quantities yet.
Inda Intiar is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
