N.B. COVID-19 roundup: Public Health to hold live update this afternoon

Premier Blaine Higgs and Dr. Jennifer Russell will provide a live update on COVID-19 this afternoon.

The update, scheduled for 2:30, comes after almost two weeks of restrictions under Level 3, the most restrictive level of the province's winter plan for COVID-19.

The update will be live streamed here.

Higgs has been adamant that the restrictions, which were imposed Friday, Jan. 14, would be lifted no later than Monday, Jan. 31.

And at a news conference about primary-care changes on Wednesday, Health Minister Dorothy Shephard indicated that "the modelling looks good" for moving to Level 2.

The province's winter plan says an assessment of returning to Level 2 would be triggered by a decline in the seven-day average of hospitalizations.

Hospitalizations have been creeping up slightly this week, with 137 people hospitalized as of Wednesday.

Public Health announced six COVID-related deaths in four zones on Wednesday, bringing the province's death toll from COVID-19 to 221.

The deaths included a person in their 80s in the Moncton region, Zone 1, a person in their 80s in the Fredericton region, Zone 3, a person in their 80s and another in their 90s in the Bathurst region, Zone 6, and a person in their 40s and another their 80s in the Miramichi region, Zone 7.

There were 137 people in hospital as of Wednesday, eight of those in intensive care, including one person who is on a ventilator.

Eighty of those 137 patients were admitted for reasons other than COVID, 107 are age 60 or over, and four are age 19 or under, Public Health said in a news release on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, more than 40 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers, or 303,000 people, had received their booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 55 per cent of eligible children aged five to 11 have received their first dose.