10 more COVID-related deaths, 192 people in hospital
Horizon and Vitalité launch their own dashboards, showing all COVID-related hospitalizations
Latest
- Deaths include two people in their 40s
- At least 539 health-care workers off
New Brunswick has recorded 10 more COVID-related deaths and 79 people are hospitalized because of the virus, including 13 in intensive care, according to the weekly update Tuesday from the government.
But there are actually 192 COVID-related hospitalizations across the province, figures released Tuesday by the Horizon and Vitalité health networks show.
That's up from 178 last week.
Unlike the province's new COVIDWATCH website, which includes only people hospitalized for COVID, not people who were initially admitted to hospital for another reason and later test positive for the virus, Horizon and Vitalité have launched their own COVID-19 dashboards, which include both.
And unlike the government's replacement for the COVID-19 dashboard, which includes weekly data up to and including the previous Saturday, their figures are current as of Tuesday and Monday respectively.
Horizon has 119 COVID patients, 10 of whom require intensive care.
Vitalité has 73 hospitalized COVID patients, including 10 in ICU.
The latest update comes about one month after the province lifted all remaining COVID-19 restrictions, such as masking and mandatory isolation for people infected with the virus. At that time, 103 people were hospitalized.
Now the province is facing the threat of a sixth wave that could be fuelled by a new Omicron subvariant called Omicron XE, which is a combination of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2. It's 10 per cent more transmissible than BA2, which is 60 per cent more transmissible than BA1, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell has said.
Deaths include two people in their 40s
The COVID-related deaths include those where COVID-19 was "a primary or contributing factor to cause of death as per the attending physician," according to the province's website.
The province no longer provides information about new COVID-related deaths, such as their age groups, or which health zones they lived in.
But a comparison of this week's report to last week's reveals the latest deaths include two people in their 40s, four in their 80s and four 90 or older.
Five of the deaths occurred in the Moncton region, Zone 1, two in the Fredericton region, Zone 3, and the other three in the Bathurst region, Zone 6.
The latest deaths raise the province's pandemic death toll to 368.
The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations for COVID-19, including ICU admissions, jumped to 78 from 68, according to the province's web page.
The number of patients on ventilators is no longer provided by Public Health.
A child under 10 is among those hospitalized, the data shows.
Those in ICU include three in their 50s, one in their 60s, three in their 70s, and one in their 80s.
"There was a decrease in the number of hospital admissions for COVID-19 this week (41) compared to last week (78)," a government summary states.
The highest portion of hospitalizations for COVID-19 is among people aged 60-79, it says.
"Individuals that are unprotected by vaccine continue to have the highest rate of hospitalization for COVID-19 and death."
The province defines unprotected as fully vaccinated more than six months, partially vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Breakdown of cases
A total of 7,734 new cases of COVID have been recorded in the past week. That includes 3,962 people who tested positive through PCR lab tests and 3,772 people who self-reported testing positive on rapid tests.
Based on PCR tests alone, there are now 5,721 active cases across the province.
The regional breakdown of the new and active cases includes:
- Moncton region, Zone 1 — 1,301 new PCR-confirmed cases, 1,304 new rapid test cases and 1,885 active cases
- Saint John region, Zone 2 — 768 new PCR-confirmed cases, 796 new rapid test cases and 1,153 active cases
- Fredericton region, Zone 3 — 798 new PCR-confirmed cases, 858 new rapid test cases and 1,074 active cases
- Edmundston region, Zone 4 — 281 new PCR-confirmed cases, 141 new rapid test cases and 371 active cases
- Campbellton region, Zone 5 — 158 new PCR-confirmed cases, 86 new rapid test cases and 253 active cases
- Bathurst region, Zone 6 — 469 new PCR-confirmed cases, 390 new rapid test cases and 682 active cases
- Miramichi region, Zone 7 — 187 new PCR-confirmed cases, 197 new rapid test cases and 303 active cases
A total of 793,484 PCR tests have been conducted to date, including 10,888 since the last report.
A total of 58,431 rapid tests have been self-reported.
According to the website, 51.6 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers have now received their COVID-19 booster dose, up from 51.4 per cent a week ago, 87.7 per cent have received two doses, up from 87.6 per cent, and 93 per cent have received their first dose, unchanged.
New Brunswick has had 55,812 confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic with 49,723 recoveries, now described as "resolved" cases, so far.
At least 539 health-care workers off
Horizon has 205 health-care workers off after testing positive for COVID-19. The number of workers off isolating because of a close contact with a positive case is not available, said spokesperson Kris McDavid.
Vitalité has 248 infected staff off work, according to the dashboard. Another 86 have been removed from work due to a contact with a positive case, pushing the total absences to 334. That's down from 340 and 125 respectively.
There are active COVID-19 outbreaks on 30 units at 11 hospitals across the province.
These include two new outbreaks at the Campbellton Regional Hospital's geriatric unit and veterans' unit, the Vitalité dashboard shows.
Other Vitalité COVID outbreaks include:
Zone 1, Moncton region
- Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre — medicine and step-down Unit 4C
- Veterans' Health Centre — Unit 200 and Unit 300
Zone 4, Edmundston region
-
Edmundston Regional Hospital — surgery Unit 1
Zone 6, Bathurst region
- Chaleur Regional Hospital — medical unit (2th West) and geriatric unit (4th West)
- Tracadie Hospital — medical unit
Visits by designated support persons on these units are temporarily suspended. "Some exceptions may be possible and will be granted on a case by case basis," the website states.
Horizon hospitals with COVID outbreaks include:
Moncton Hospital
- Medical/rehab unit, Unit 5200
- Cardiac care unit, Unit 3400
- Family practice/palliative care unit, Unit 3600
- Stroke unit, Unit 4600
- Rehab unit, Unit 4400
- Medical surgical intensive care unit
- Surgical unit, Unit 5600
Saint John Regional Hospital
- Transitional care unit, 4AN
- Family medicine unit, 5CN
- General surgery unit, 3CN
- Internal medicine unit, 4CN
- Family medicine unit, 5CS
- Oncology unit, 5AS
- Palliative care unit, 3BN
Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital
- Transitional care unit, 4E
- Surgical/orthopedics unit, 4NE
- Medical unit, 4NW
- Medical unit, 3E
- Surgical unit, 4SW
Charlotte County Hospital
- Family medicine unit, 1st floor
Oromocto Public Hospital
- Geriatrics unit, Z-Gar
Hospital occupancy across Vitalité is listed at 92 per cent, down from 103 per cent last week.
Horizon occupancy ranges from a low of 67 per cent at the Miramichi Regional Hospital to a high of 94 per cent at the Saint John Regional Hospital.