N.B. COVID-19 roundup: Winter plan will be released today at briefing
CBC
The New Brunswick government will release its winter plan for COVID-19 today instead of Monday, as originally planned, says Health Minister Dorothy Shephard.
Shephard said she wants to address public angst that Christmas could be cancelled.
"I just know that people have had a tremendous amount of stress over COVID and the last thing I want to do is layer that on," she said Friday morning.
"I understand that we need to have our family, we need to see each other and fortunately, vaccinations have made travel possible this year."
On Thursday, Shephard told reporters at the legislature that people should hold off until Monday to make Christmas travel plans.
She's "very worried" about the high case counts, "significant amount" of community spread and uncertainty surrounding the positive cases of the new, potentially more transmissible COVID-19 variant, omicron, in Quebec and Ontario, she said.
Shephard and Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health, will hold a COVID-19 briefing at 2:30 p.m.
The event will be livestreamed here on CBC New Brunswick's website.
The goal of the winter plan is "minimizing disruption to people's lives while protecting our health-care system," said Shephard.
Asked whether New Brunswick will follow the lead of other provinces, such as Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, and restrict travel for children under 12 taking part in interprovincial sport tournaments or art and cultural events, she said the government has looked to its sister provinces to see what measures have reduced COVID cases.
"But I believe we have found a really good balance to allow people to live their lives and for us to be able to work together to bring our numbers down."
The hospital system is strained but not overwhelmed, she said. As of Thursday night, there were 20 vacant and staffed intensive care beds in New Brunswick.
Vaccinations are helping "considerably," Shephard said. "They are the first line of defence in serious illness, hospital admissions, ICU admissions and death."
Masking along with vaccinations "can take it to a whole new level."
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