UPDATED: Edmundston Region Moving To Lockdown

The Edmundston health region (Zone 4) is moving to a full lockdown as of midnight Saturday night, the province’s chief medical officer of health announced Friday.

Dr. Jennifer Russell said the “strongest measures are needed” in the area, which has seen double-digit case increases daily over the past several days.

Russell said Zone 4 has 309 cases per 100,000 people — nearly six times the rate of the rest of New Brunswick. The 129 active cases account for nearly 39 per cent of the province’s total active cases. At the rate the cases as multiplied since Jan 6, with 7 active cases, Russell expects 200 active cases by early next week and 400 cases by end of month.

“Our objective is to reduce opportunities for transmission by having people limit their movement to the greatest extent possible,” she said. “This means no unnecessary travel in or out of Zone 4, so please stay at home within your single household bubble as much as you can.”

She said the lockdown will remain in place for at least 14 days and will be evaluated every seven days.

Health Minister Dorothy Shephard outlined some of the new restrictions as part of the lockdown:

• All K-12 schools and post-secondary facilities must close and move to virtual learning only. A device loan program will be available for families of K-8 students who do not have access to a device.
• Only essential businesses can remain open. Stores that sell food, medication and hardware supplies are allowed to stay open, but can only sell essential items.
• Restaurant dining rooms, gyms, recreation and sports activities, entertainment centres, salons, spas and farmers’ markets remain closed. Restaurants can offer drive-through, delivery and take-out.
• Post offices, NB Liquor and Cannabis NB will stay open. Vet Clinics and animal hospitals can also stay open with curb side animal drop offs. Financial and lending institutions can also operate but virtual options should be used where possible.
• Early childhood education facilities can continue to open with increased safety measures. Early childhood educators who continue to work during the lockdown are offered a wage top-up of $3 per hour, and operators of daycares have can access additional funding to support the implementation of increased health and safety measures.
• Non-regulated health care providers must close unless they can provide services virtually.
• Indoor formal gatherings, including weddings and religious services, are not permitted. Funerals must be limited to a single household bubble.
• Public spaces, including rinks and downhill skiing, will be closed. Outdoor activities with members of your household are permitted. Groomed managed ATV and snowmobile trails will be closed.
• Evictions will not be allowed. Landlords will have to wait until at least 10 days after the lockdown ends.
• Law and accounting firms must provide services virtually. Lottery tickets also must be sold and bought online.
• Construction and maintenance operations, and essential manufacturing services are permitted.
• Public libraries will remain open only so people can access internet services to connect with essential services.
• Anyone who can work from home are strongly encouraged to do so, otherwise, employers must limit contact between employees or assign varying shifts, and keep a record of names and shift times. Common areas not allowed to be used.
• With Service NB closed, residents can use expired licenses until 10 days after the lockdown ends.
• A single household bubble can extend care to children from another household bubble for the purposes of informal daycare or online education support. This must be the same household bubble for the entire lockdown.
• Carpooling to access essential services is allowed but continuous mask use and physical distancing required.
• Taxis also allowed but with continuous mask use. Passengers must be from the same household bubble and sitting in the back seat.

A full list of lockdown measures can be found on the Government of New Brunswick’s website.

Overall, for Zone 4, non-essential travel isn’t recommended.

“Please only leave your homes for essential reasons,” Shephard said. “There should be absolutely no non-essential travel in or out of zone 4 at this time.”

But travel restrictions were also tightened province wide as of midnight. People entering New Brunswick will have to isolate for 14 days away from others. The exceptions are people traveling back and forth daily for work, truck drivers, and those who must travel for medical care, childcare and child custody. However, they’ll still have to be tested weekly.

People from Listuguj First Nation and Pointe-à-la-Croix in Quebec, which neighbours Campbellton, can still come for medical appointments and childcare, and childcare arrangements. Shephard said they can also come once a week to buy essential items, but they’ll be subjected to mandatory weekly testing.

Meanwhile, schools are kept open because it’s “the safest place for our children to be in,” Russell says. She says she herself has two teenagers still attending high school in the Fredericton area.

As of January 19, 32 schools in New Brunswick have been affected by Covid-19.

“But we haven’t seen cases where the virus was transmitted directly from one student to another,” Russell said.

Of the transmissions in schools, 20 percent were student to staff, 40 percent were staff to student, and another 40 percent were staff to staff.

She also noted the positive impact of attending schools, as it gives children a sense of security and predictability, and a safe place to interact with their peers.

New Cases In Five Zones

Public Health announced 30 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Friday, including 19 additional cases in Zone 4.

The Moncton health region (Zone 1) has eight new cases, while there is one case each in the Saint John (Zone 2), Fredericton (Zone 3) and Miramichi (Zone 7) health regions.

There are 331 known active cases throughout the province, an increase of seven compared to Thursday. Five people are in the hospital, including three people in intensive care.

The province said 23 more people are considered to be recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 742.

Zones 1, 2 and 3 remain in the red phase, while Zones 5, 6 and 7 will stay in the orange phase.