Dr. Jennifer Russell announced the Edmundston region would move to the red phase January 17. Photo courtesy of GNB on YouTube.
New Brunswick Public Health reported 36 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the highest daily total since the pandemic began.
Twenty-four of the new cases were found in the Edmundston Zone 4 region, the highest daily total that has been reported in any region.
As a result, the province has decided Zone 4 will transition to the Red phase of pandemic recovery as of midnight Sunday night.
Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said the decision was made due to troubling trends in the region.
“In one day, the number of active cases in Zone 4 jumped by more than one-third from 52 to 76 and it is now clear that the majority of the cases being reported in Zone 4 are linked to one workplace area,” Russell said during a rare Sunday afternoon COVID-19 briefing.
Russell later confirmed that 11 of the 24 cases in Zone 4 are linked to Nadeau Poultry in Saint-François de Madawaska, where mass testing took place over the past couple of days.
While the rest of the province remains at the Orange level, Russell said the Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton regions could join their fellow residents in the Edmundston region.
“Zones 1, 2 and 3 are on the cusp of moving to the Red alert level,” she said. “We are responding to limit the severity of this outbreak, but to bring this under control, we need every New Brunswicker to contribute.”
Sunday’s announcement included cases reported in five different health zones.
- Zone 1 (Moncton) – five new cases
- Zone 2 (Saint John) – four new cases
- Zone 3 (Fredericton) – two new cases
- Zone 4 (Edmundston) – 24 new cases
- Zone 6 (Bathurst) – one new case
There are now 292 active cases in the province, with 11 more recoveries reported since Saturday, and one person is in the hospital.
A total of 947 cases have been reported since the pandemic began, including 348 cases since the beginning of January.
Changes to Red phase
K-12 schools across New Brunswick will remain open, even as part of the province prepares to enter the Red level of recovery.
The province’s initial Return to School plan said schools would move to virtual learning if a zone transitions to the Red phase.
But Education Minister Dominic Cardy announced Sunday that changes have been made to keep students in the classroom.
“Based on the experience and knowledge we’ve gained in response to each individual situation, we know that the safest place for students to be right now is in school,” Cardy said during the briefing.
“When students are at school, they’re in a supervised environment with those strict health and safety protocols in place. Their social needs can be met while maintaining physical distancing using masks and the encouragement to maintain proper hygiene.”
Enhanced health and safety measures have been introduced in the Red level, such as requiring students and staff to stay home if they have even one symptom of COVID-19, and actively screening school staff when they report to work each day.
Any school in the Red zone with a confirmed case will be closed for at least three days for contact tracing. The school would also become a testing site for school staff.
“While I appreciate that there will be concern over schools remaining open, I am convinced and have been since late last year when this idea began to be discussed in the department that this is the best approach,” said Cardy.
Cardy said keeping students in the classroom as much as possible not only helps their academics but also their mental health.
Positive cases at schools
The province also announced Sunday that cases had been discovered at four more cases in the Saint John and Moncton health regions.
In Zone 2, Millidgeville North School in Saint John and Belleisle Elementary School in Springfield each had a confirmed case.
Both schools are slated to be open Monday, and contact tracers will only be in touch with those who are believed to have been close contacts of the case.
In the Moncton region, Riverview East School in Riverview and Caledonia Regional High School in Hillsborough each had one positive case.
On Sunday evening, the Anglophone East School District announced that both schools would be closed Monday.
The district also said that Monday will be an at-home learning day for students at Edith Cavell School in Moncton, which reported two positive cases last week.
Cardy said 14 schools and six early learning and childcare facilities across the province are currently being impacted by COVID-19.
With files from Brad Perry.
