FOG BLOG NEW BRUNSWICK NEWS LOG: ALL RESTRICTIONS RE: COVID 19 LIFTED AS OF TODAY .....AGAIN!

New Brunswick lifts all COVID-19 restrictions for 2nd time, hopes for different outcome...No more mandated masks, distancing or isolation as emergency order comes to an end.......No more provincially mandated masks. No more limits on gatherings or distancing rules. No more legally required isolation for people infected with COVID-19.

New Brunswick lifted all remaining COVID-19 restrictions Monday with the end of the mandatory order, nearly two years after it began.

"It doesn't mean that the pandemic is over," Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health, said Monday.

"We do expect more variants and we do expect more surges. So again, it's really important that people get vaccinated."

Premier Blaine Higgs declared a state of emergency on March 19, 2020, in response to the pandemic.

It was the first province-wide state of emergency in New Brunswick history and gave the government extraordinary powers, such as restricting travel into the province and ordering business closures, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The province had seven confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the time and four probable cases. No one had been hospitalized. And no one had died.

Past Omicron peak

On Friday, New Brunswick recorded another COVID-related death, raising the pandemic death toll to 317.

There are 103 people in hospital, including three youths 19 or under, as of Friday.

Fourteen people required intensive care, and seven of them were on ventilators, according to the dashboard, which has now switched to weekly instead of daily and won't be updated until Tuesday.

Of those hospitalized, 49 were admitted for COVID-19, and 54 were initially admitted for something else when they tested positive for the coronavirus.

Across the province, 577 health-care workers were off after testing positive for COVID and at least another 76 were isolating after contact with a positive case.