Key takeaways:
- There are no more gathering restrictions or distancing rules. COVID-19 infected people are no longer required by law to be isolated.
- Another COVID-related death was reported in New Brunswick on Friday, bringing the total number of COVID-related deaths to 317.
The province will require no more masks. There are no longer any restrictions on gatherings or distancing rules. People infected with COVID-19 are no longer required to be isolated by law.
With the end of the mandatory order well almost two years after it began, New Brunswick loosened all remaining COVID-19 limitations on Monday.
“It doesn’t mean the pandemic is over,” says Dr. Jennifer Russell, the state’s chief medical officer.
“We expect more variants and surges in the future. So, once again, people must get immunized.”
Also read: The lifting of COVID-19 restrictions has received mixed reviews in New Brunswick
In response to the pandemic, Premier Blaine Higgs proclaimed a state of emergency on March 19, 2020.
It was the first province-wide state of emergency in New Brunswick history, giving the government unprecedented powers to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, including restricting travel into the province and ordering business closures.
At the time, the province had seven confirmed COVID-19 cases and four probable cases. No one had been admitted to the hospital. There had been no deaths.
past the peak of Omicron
On Friday, another COVID-related death was reported in New Brunswick, bringing the total number of deaths from the pandemic to 317.
As of Friday, 103 people were in the hospital, three of whom were under 19.
According to the dashboard, fourteen individuals required intensive care, seven of them on ventilators. The dashboard has now switched to weekly updates rather than daily updates and won’t be updated until Tuesday.
49 people were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19, and 54 were admitted for something else before testing positive for the coronavirus.
577 healthcare workers were placed on leave across the province after testing positive for COVID, and at least a further 76 were isolated after contact with a positive case.
The counts were comparable when the province went on a 16-day Level 3 lockdown two months ago. There were 104 individuals in the hospital, nine of them in intensive care and three on ventilators.
A sum of 386 healthcare workers was unable to work due to the strike.
According to Russell, modeling shows the province has passed the high of the Omicron variant.
“Yes, we continue to have many hospitalizations,” she said, “but we’re managing.”
“We will probably see some raises” in cases and hospitalizations “here and there” as the restrictions are lifted.
However, according to modeling done by Public Health epidemiologists in collaboration with the University of New Brunswick, they aren’t expected to be overwhelming.
She has stated that citing high vaccination rates, “we are well prepared to move to the next stage of our pandemic journey.”
50.6 percent of eligible New Brunswickers received their COVID-19 vaccine booster dose as of Friday, with 87.3 percent receiving two doses.
When the province went to Level 3, only 28.7% of the eligible population received a boost, while 83.3% received a double dose.
Source: CBC News
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