FREDERICTON — A senior health official in New Brunswick says the province got it wrong in late July when the decision was made to lift all health-protection measures aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19.
Dr. Gordon Dow, infectious disease specialist with the Horizon Health Network, told a briefing today that the province will be implementing further health-protection measures, in addition to those introduced earlier this week.
Health officials confirmed today that the province is facing a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases, which is putting extreme pressure on its hospitals.
New Brunswick has recorded 866 cases this month — nearly a quarter of the total reported since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
In late July, as the province was preparing to drop all of its COVID-19 restrictions, infectious disease experts warned that New Brunswick would face a surge in cases, mainly because of the decision to drop mask requirements in indoor public places.
Dow says that senior health officials in the province can all agree that it was a mistake to lift all restrictions when there was plenty of evidence at the time to suggest that the rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta variant would envelop the province by the fall.
"All of us in this room right now, with the evidence of this rapid increase in Delta virus in the province, we'll all agree that was not the right decision to make," Dow said.
"Many other jurisdictions made the very same mistake. Alberta made the mistake, except they made it a month before us. Saskatchewan made the mistake. The United States made the mistake. The U.K. made the mistake. There were a lot of mistakes made."
Since Wednesday, masks are again made mandatory in all indoor public spaces in New Brunswick, some businesses are requiring proof of vaccination to access non-essential services and travellers entering the province need to pre-register.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2021.
The Canadian Press