FOG BLOG NB BREAKING NEWS LOG: COVID 19 CASES TODAY AT 30! EDMUNSTON BACK TO RED PHASE!

Public Health employs four-day 'circuit breaker' for part of Edmundston region as variant cases climb.......

30 new cases, highest single-day count in two months
62% of Edmundston cases are variant cases
Part of Edmundston region returns to red for 4 days
89 active cases

Part of the Edmundston region, Zone 4, will return to the red phase of recovery for four days, effective 6 p.m. Thursday, as case counts and variant cases climb. Dr. Jennifer Russell made the announcement at a live-streamed update on Thursday, where she also announced 30 new cases, the highest number reported in a single day in two months. Of those 30 new cases, 24 are in the Edmundston region, Russell said. "Just when it seemed things were getting better, the game has changed again, and the variants are driving that change," Russell said. "The new strains are really daunting, they're more infectious and it is difficult to keep cases contained." Edmundston and the upper Madawaska region are going back two phases in COVID-19 recovery, skipping over orange to the more severe restrictions of the red phase.

The rest of the region, including Grand Falls, Kedgwick, Saint-Quentin and Saint-Léonard, will remain in the yellow phase for now, along with the rest of the province.

The minimum four-day phase change, which Russell referred to as a "circuit-breaker," will allow Public Health to review the results of contact tracing and mass testing underway in Zone 4 to determine how widespread the outbreak is.

"Depending on our findings, this measure could be extended for a longer period of time and it may need to be expanded to cover the rest of Zone 4," Russell said. In addition to 24 cases in Zone 4, the province also reported five travel-related cases in the Saint John region and one in the Bathurst region.

There are 89 active cases of COVID-19 in New Brunswick and 635 people are self-isolating.

The number of confirmed cases in New Brunswick is 1,546 and the number of recoveries is 1,426.