N.B. COVID-19 roundup: 1 death, number of health-care workers off is higher than dashboard shows

New Brunswick recorded another COVID-related death Friday, and the number of health-care workers off the job because of COVID-19 is higher than the province's dashboard indicates.

Someone in their 60s in the Miramichi region, Zone 7, has died, according to the dashboard. No other information about the person has been released, including whether they died from COVID-19 or just tested positive for COVID-19 when they died.

There are 103 people in hospital, an increase of two from Thursday, including three youths aged 19 or under.

Fourteen people require intensive care, down four, and seven of them are on ventilators, up one.

The seven-day average of COVID-related hospitalizations increased to 96 from 94, while the seven-day average of COVID-related ICU bed occupancies increased to 12 from 11, the dashboard shows.

New Brunswick is set to lift all COVID-19 restrictions on Monday, which will mark just over two years since the province recorded its first confirmed case of the virus.

But the Horizon Health Network and Vitalité Health Network are keeping their hospitals and other health-care centres at the red alert level.

They cited the number of health-care workers off the job because of COVID, "high" hospitalizations and "significant" daily case counts.

As of Friday, 577 health-care workers are off isolating, down from 596 on Thursday, according to the dashboard. That includes 332 from Horizon, 181 from Vitalité, and 64 from Extra-Mural and Ambulance New Brunswick.

But the dashboard shows only how many health-care workers have tested positive — not how many are isolating because they've been a close contact of a positive case.

On Thursday, Vitalité issued a status report that shows an additional 76 of its health-care workers have been "removed from work due to a contact."

That pushes the total to roughly 653.

Horizon did not immediately respond to a request for its number of workers isolating after coming into contact with a positive case.

Hospital capacity provincewide decreased to 89 per cent from 90 per cent, but ICU occupancy jumped to 77 per cent from 72 per cent.

Here is the breakdown of Horizon hospitals, as of Thursday:

• Moncton Hospital — 94 per cent
• Saint John Regional Hospital — 100 per cent
• Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital — 91 per cent
• Miramichi Regional Hospital — 91 per cent
• Upper River Valley Hospital — 90 per cent

Here is the breakdown of Vitalité hospitals, as of Thursday:

• Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre —108 per cent
• Stella-Maris-de-Kent Hospital — 140 per cent
• Edmundston Regional Hospital — 85 per cent
• Grand Falls General Hospital — 100 per cent
• Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Joseph de Saint-Quentin — 100 per cent
• Campbellton Regional Hospital — 96 per cent
• Restigouche Hospital Centre — currently unavailable
• Chaleur Regional Hospital — 92 per cent
• Tracadie Hospital — 106 per cent
• Enfant-Jésus RHSJ Hospital — 108 per cent
• Lamèque Hospital — 108 per cent

Breakdown of cases

Of the 103 people in hospital Friday, 49 were admitted for COVID-19, and 54 were initially admitted for something else when they tested positive for the virus. Of the 14 in an ICU, 12 are "for COVID" patients.

In addition to the three people aged 19 or under who are in hospital, there are four in their 20s, five in their 30s, four in their 40s, seven in their 50s, 17 in their 60s, 24 in their 70s, 19 in their 80s, and six in their 90s, the dashboard shows.

In intensive care, there are two people in their 40s, one in their 50s, five in their 60s, and six in their 70s.

Public Health confirmed 403 new cases of COVID-19 through lab-based PCR tests Friday, putting the active case count at 4,055, an increase of 92 from Thursday.

An additional 512 people self-reported testing positive on rapid tests.

The regional breakdown of the PCR-confirmed cases includes:

Moncton region, Zone 1

• 105 new cases and 1,194 active cases

Saint John region, Zone 2

• 98 new cases and 997 active cases

Fredericton region, Zone 3

• 98 new cases and 877 active cases

Edmundston region, Zone 4

• 23 new cases and 222 active cases

Campbellton region, Zone 5

• 19 new cases and 143 active cases

Bathurst region, Zone 6

• 46 new cases and 405 active cases

Miramichi region, Zone 7

• 14 new cases and 217 active cases

A total of 748,578 PCR tests have been conducted to date, including 1,512 on Thursday.

As of Friday, 50.6 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers have received their COVID-19 vaccine booster dose, up from 50.5 per cent, 87.3 per cent have received two vaccine doses, unchanged, and 92.9 per cent have received one dose, also unchanged.

New Brunswick has had 41,512 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, with 37,138 recoveries so far and 317 COVID-related deaths.

Request to reconsider mask mandate

Megan Mitton, the Green Party's health critic and the MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar, is calling on the government to keep mandatory masking in place.

She says she wrote to Health Minister Dorothy Shephard and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell on Friday to request they reconsider lifting mask mandates Monday, along with all other COVID restrictions.

"I am extremely concerned that the pandemic is not over but all restrictions are being lifted, similar to last year," Mitton posted on Twitter.

"Wearing masks is a small thing people can do to help protect our communities. This isn't an individual problem with an individual solution: it's a collective one that still requires a collective solution. They need to reconsider. They could save lives. It's not too late."

A Fredericton mother of two has filed a complaint against Russell with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick saying Russell has provided no medical evidence or scientific data to support her recommendation to remove masks.

Jessica Bleasdale of Fredericton contends the decision will cause the "reckless endangerment" of children in schools, among others, and goes against the primary objective of all doctors to do no harm and to prevent disease whenever possible.

In an emailed response to Bleasdale, college registrar Dr. Ed Schollenberg suggested the decision was political. "In the end these decisions are made by politicians, with whom [Russell] cannot openly disagree with."

Education Minister Dominic Cardy said it's "reasonable to ask for explanations."

"But there were no politics in this decision," he posted on Twitter.

"Question health decisions based on health. We have followed Public Health's recommendations."

Russell is attending a medical conference and has been unavailable to comment.