Via The Globe and Mail: New Brunswick delays reopening amid cluster of new coronavirus cases linked to doctor. Excerpt:
A New Brunswick doctor who travelled to Quebec and broke self-isolation rules when he returned has sparked a new COVID-19 outbreak, derailing the reopening plans of a province that hoped it had stamped out the virus.
Eight people have tested positive so far, including the doctor’s elderly father and his six-year-old son, according to the mayor of Campbellton, the northern New Brunswick town where the doctor has a family practice and works shifts at the local emergency department.
The fallout of the doctor’s excursion has spread far beyond his own family, underlining how one person can affect the course of an entire province’s fight against the coronavirus.
The emergency department at the Campbellton Regional Hospital has been closed and elective surgeries postponed. Two people connected to the outbreak are in the intensive-care unit.
Every resident and employee at a long-term care home in nearby Atholville is being tested because one of the home’s workers is among the infected. People with relatives in the home, called La Vallée Manor, were saying prayers on Facebook for mothers and fathers, and other relatives.
In the area around Campbellton, the government reimposed restrictions that had just been lifted, forcing barbershops, spas and tattoo parlours to close their doors and individuals to retreat to bubbles of no more than two households.
Elsewhere in the province, the next phase of reopening – which was supposed to begin Friday and would have permitted pools, gyms, bowling alleys and small church services to start up – was postponed by a week, until June 5.
“This is a big investigation that we’re conducting,” said Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick’s Chief Medical Officer.
More than 150 people may have been exposed, she said, some from outside the region where the doctor practised.
“It really would not make sense at this point in time to put others at risk," she added.
Still, Dr. Russell acknowledged the frustration of New Brunswickers eager to return to a more normal life, as did Premier Blaine Higgs, who appeared alongside Dr. Russell at a news conference Friday.
“I would encourage everyone to let the authorities deal with this,” the Premier said, referring to repercussions for the man who seeded the outbreak. “I know people are upset, but we don’t want anyone taking matters into their own hands.”
