N.B. COVID-19 roundup: 3 more deaths, province to review mandatory vaccine policy for employees
CBC
Three more New Brunswickers with COVID-19 have died, hospitalizations have dropped to 89, and the province plans to review its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for government employees.
"It will be reviewed in the coming weeks," Treasury Board spokesperson Erika Jutras confirmed Wednesday.
She could not immediately explain what prompted the review.
But it comes as the province prepares to enter Level 1 of the COVID-19 winter plan, the least restrictive level, on Friday at 11:59 p.m.
Premier Blaine Higgs has also said he hopes to lift all COVID restrictions in March.
Jutras could not immediately say what the review will entail or what a decision will be based upon.
Nor could she immediately say how soon any changes might be implemented.
On Oct. 5, Higgs announced that all provincial government employees in the civil service, the education system, the health-care system and Crown corporations, as well as staff in long-term care facilities, schools and licensed early learning and child-care facilities must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 19, or have a medical exemption.
Those who didn't meet the deadline, roughly 2,000 workers, were put on unpaid leave.
As of Jan. 19, the most recent figures available from the province, 563 of the 58,000 government employees remained on indefinite leave without pay. They can still get vaccinated and return to work, Jutras has said.
Last week, a lawsuit against the province over its vaccination mandate for employees was dismissed.
Court of Queen's Bench Justice Thomas Christie said the four applicants were not being forced to do anything, as they had argued.
The deaths reported Wednesday include a person in their 70s in the Moncton region, Zone 1, a person in their 80s in the Saint John region, Zone 2, and a person in their 60s in the Fredericton region, Zone 3, according to the COVID-19 dashboard.
Sixty-eight people have died in the 19 days since the province moved to Level 2 of the COVID-19 winter plan from the most restrictive Level 3.
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