N.B. COVID-19 roundup: Lockdown aims to avert life or death choices, says top doctor

New Brunswick's chief medical officer of health says the province is moving to the strictest level of its COVID-19 winter plan at midnight so doctors aren't forced to make decisions about which patients live or die.

Dr. Jennifer Russell says New Brunswick's hospitals weren't "doing super" before the pandemic and have been under extra strain throughout.

But the fast-spreading Omicron variant has "really compromised our ability to continue to deliver really quality acute services," she told CBC News Network on Friday, hours before the lockdown.

The biggest challenges, she said, are the increased number of hospitalizations for people with COVID-19 — a record-high of 104, as of Thursday — and the number of health-care workers who have tested positive and are isolating — 386.

"So we're getting hit in two ways."

The Horizon Health Network alone has already postponed more than 500 surgeries so far, Russell said.

Earlier this week, the province released COVID projections that showed hospitalizations would reach nearly 220 by the end of the month, and new cases would peak at 5,500 a day, if current trends held and no changes were made.

"As you get closer to that number, that means that we wouldn't be able to offer those critical care services, and having to make a decision for somebody who had COVID or non-COVID acute care needs, whether it's a car accident or heart attack, making choices around life or death for those individuals would be what it would come to," Russell said.

"And that's what we don't want to see happen."

Under Level 3:

In addition, public schools have extended at-home learning for students until Jan. 31.

The province would not be moving to Level 3 if it could manage the hospital situation, said Premier Blaine Higgs.

"But we can't, and we've been told very clearly that we can't," he said on Information Morning Fredericton. "And the risk is that we would impact people that had a critical need that was unrelated to COVID but wouldn't be able to get the services they needed.

"And we've heard doctors say they may have to make a decision on life or death because they just don't have the capabilities to manage it. We can't allow that to happen."