Public Health says 7 new cases of COVID have been confirmed since yesterday – 6 of them in the Edmundston region. Three of these cases are contacts of previous cases and the other 3 are under investigation. The other case is in the Fredericton River Valley area and is a contact of an existing case.
There are 146 active cases in the province including 12 here in the Saint John region. A record high 20 people are in hospital – 13 intensive care. Those are the highest hospitalization numbers since the pandemic began over a year ago. The COVID death toll now stands at 31.
Chief Medical Officer of Health – Dr Jennifer Russell – says most of the cases in the Edmundston region are the U-K variant. Russell says they are seeing more younger people being hospitalized due to the U-K variant. She says all New Brunswickers must remain vigilant and keep following Public Health guidelines. Russell expects most COVID cases going forward will be either the U-K variant or the P.1 variant – both are highly contagious and are hitting younger people harder.
