Province may revisit mandatory COVID-19 vaccines, says Higgs
CBC
New Brunswick may revisit the issue of mandatory COVID-19 vaccines, says Premier Blaine Higgs.
He made the comment Monday evening during an interview with CBC's Power & Politics, following a call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the other premiers.
Until now, New Brunswick has maintained that education regarding vaccines is the key.
But the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly, and case counts and hospitalizations are surging.
A record-high of 86 people are hospitalized because of the virus Monday, including 13 in intensive care. Ten people are on ventilators.
Hundreds of health-care workers are off sick or isolating, and hospitals are at the red COVID alert level, providing emergency or urgent services only.
"I think it's something that will get further discussion in New Brunswick, and probably across the country," said Higgs, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 29 with a rapid test after receiving two doses of AstraZeneca and a booster vaccine.
"Several" members of his immediate family, who were also fully vaccinated and received their booster doses, also subsequently tested positive.
Last Thursday, federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said provinces are likely to introduce mandatory vaccination policies in the coming months to deal with surging COVID-19 caseloads.
"What we see now is that our health care system in Canada is fragile, our people are tired, and the only way that we know to get through COVID-19, this variant and any future variant, is through vaccination," Duclos said.
"Fifty per cent of hospitalizations now, in Quebec, are due to people not having been vaccinated," he said. "That's a burden on health care workers, a burden on society which is very difficult to bear and for many people difficult to understand.
"That's why I'm signalling this is a conversation which I believe provinces and territories, in support with the federal government, will want to have over the next weeks and months."
Higgs said the topic received "very limited discussion" during the premiers' call with the prime minister.
There are "varying views" across the country, he said.
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