COVID-19 cases drop as vaccines rise in the Maritimes
For the fifth consecutive day, New Brunswick has recorded no new cases of COVID-19 in the province, with the active number dropping down to six.
And it’s a similar story across the Atlantic region.
"We’re reliably in the single digits," says Halifax-based epidemiologist Kevin Wilson.
"A lot of provinces actually routinely report zero cases or one or two cases at a time. There’s not really any ongoing outbreaks to speak of."
Nova Scotia is reporting only one new case of COVID-19 Saturday, a travel-related case in the Western zone with 39 active cases in the province – numbers that health officials say, are a direct result of vaccination efforts.
"What we’re seeing is that the vaccines are doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing," says Executive Director of the New Brunswick Pharmacists’ Association Jake Reid.
"They’re working. They’re stopping and slowing the spread of COVID among people and that’s an exciting time."
New Brunswick has begun to hold mobile vaccination clinics throughout the province as a way to boost the number of doses that are being administered. Currently, 79.3 per cent of the population has received a first dose and 49.1 per cent have received their second.
To date, Public Health says that 1,175 people have popped into the pop-up clinics to get their jab since the start of the initiative, a number that doesn’t include the turnout from Saturday’s clinic in Dieppe, N.B.
However, as second doses climb, first doses continue to be slow – a trend that Reid expects we’ll start to see repeat itself when the number of second doses starts to reach the 70 per cent mark.
"We know there’s a population that we still need to access, whether it’s due to vaccine hesitancy, perhaps due to not having enough vaccine competency, we really need to reach that population," says Reid.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in U.S. if legal options fail, Reuters sources say
TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the U.S., four sources said.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Here's why Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
Improve balance and build core strength with this exercise
When it comes to cardiovascular fitness, you may tend to focus on activities that move you forward, such as walking, running and cycling.
Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.