The number of COVID-related hospitalizations is on the rise in New Brunswick, according to new data from Public Health
The latest Respiratory Watch report shows 57 admissions between Oct. 1 and 7, with seven people admitted to an intensive care unit.
That was compared to 35 hospitalizations and five ICU admissions the previous week.
A majority of the patients — 47 of them — were aged 65 and over. There were also six people aged 45 to 64 and four people aged 20 to 44.
Five of the ICU admissions involved patients aged 65 and over. One person was aged 45 to 64 while another was aged 20 to 44.
Two more patients with COVID died in the hospital during that week. Both were aged 65 and over.
Public Health recently changed its definition of a COVID death and now only counts confirmed cases that were admitted to hospital and died during their stay.
“A death due to COVID-19 or influenza does not mean that it was necessarily the primary or contributing factor to the cause of death. Therefore, only deaths that occur in hospital will be reported,” said the department.
“Deaths that occur outside of hospital are subject to a reporting lag that can last months, while in-hospital deaths is a more timely indicator for disease severity.”
There were 133 new COVID cases reported — up from 105 cases the previous week — and the test positivity rate climbed to 14 per cent.
In addition, there were 20 lab-confirmed COVID outbreaks reported, up from nine the week before.
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