New Brunswick recorded five more deaths last week related to COVID-19, an increase of one from the previous week, according to the weekly report released Tuesday.
Public Health also recorded 675 PCR confirmed COVID-19 cases last week, with 403 of them belonging to the 50-and-up age category that started getting second booster shots in April.
Public Health does not provide the age groups attached to the deaths.
The number of active COVID cases in the province is 993.
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In an interview with CBC’s Shift, deputy medical officer of health Dr. Yves Léger said the province is still in a period of increased COVID-19 activity.
“The message we want to continue to give to individuals, whether they’re over 50 or they’re under 50 and they’re at risk or they’re not fully immunized, is we want people to have that awareness,” he said. “So they can take the measures that we’ve all been learning to use in the last two-plus years that can protect us from COVID.”
The province lifted COVID protections, including requirements about masks in public spaces, earlier this year.
Of the PCR-confirmed cases last week, 86 per cent of samples are from the BA.5 strain of the Omicron subvariant, and increase from 83 per cent in the previous week.
The other percentages of cases for each Omicron subvarient are as follows:
- 0 per cent of samples are BA.1, no change from last week
- 2 per cent of samples are BA.2, down from 11 per cent last week
- 0 per cent of samples are BA.3, no change from last week
- 12 per cent of samples are BA.4, up from six per cent last week
COVID-19 hospital admissions also increased this week, to 22, with the most admissions being for people in their 70s. There were two ICU admissions
The province’s report says most recent national data shows COVID-19 deaths continue to increase.
The province’s two health authorities also release weekly reports, but the categories — and often the criteria — differ from the province’s weekly report. For example, the province only reports on patients who are admitted for COVID, and the hospitals notes patients diagnosed with the disease after being admitted for something else.
According to data released from both health authorities on Tuesday, Horizon Health Network saw a 15-patient increase in people hospitalized with COVID-19, while Vitalité Health Network reported a dramatic decrease of 36 patients.
At Horizon, there were 90 active admissions, up from 75 the previous week, five active ICU cases, up from one, and 67 positive PCR and rapid test staff absences, up from 54.
Active admissions include all patients on isolation precautions because they have COVID-19 infections.
There are also 21 units across all Horizon hospitals with COVID-19 outbreaks, up from 18 the previous week.
Vitalité Health Network reported 21 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, down from 57 in the previous week.
The network said 144 health care workers are off because of COVID-19, down from 150, and the bed occupancy rate declined to 98 per cent from 99 per cent.
The province is also reporting 93.5 per cent of New Brunswickers have a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 88.4 per cent have a second dose and 53.3 per cent have a booster dose.
With files from Shift
This story was originally published in CBC New Brunswick on Aug. 16, 2022.
Hannah Rudderham Portfolio 