'Ignorance is not bliss,' infectious disease specialist warns as N.B. reduces COVID-19 reporting

Beginning Friday, New Brunswick's COVID-19 online dashboard will be no more as the province moves away from its regular reporting of data.

New Brunswick Health Minister Dorothy Shephard says, moving forward, the province will instead release what it calls a weekly "COVID Watch.”

"Right now, our dashboard contains 59 points of information and so, we're going to condense it to what we think is the most relevant," said Shephard.

An infectious disease specialist in Montreal says New Brunswick isn't alone in moving away from its more detailed reporting of COVID-19 data, as other provinces start to do the same.

However, he adds, when it comes to COVID-19, "ignorance is not bliss."

"You don't want to be uninformed about what's going on in your community," said Dr. Donald Vinh. "You don't want to turn a blind eye, you don't want to be an ostrich and put your head in the sand and say, 'Well, COVID doesn't exist because I don't see it, hear or speak it.' That's not how COVID works."

Families and school staff in New Brunswick are also no longer required to self-report cases to schools - a change that happened earlier this month.

The requirement to wear a mask was also dropped in public schools across the province - a decision some would like to see reversed.

"The minister of education needs to show some leadership and reintroduce masking in schools," said New Brunswick Green MLA Megan Mitton. "It's not forever, but it's important right now. We need to protect the people who are vulnerable in our society."

New Brunswick Liberal Leader Roger Melanson says there should be consistent guidelines sent out by Friday on what schools should and should not be doing.

"To understand what can be done more and the mask needs to be, for sure, a serious option," he said.

Education Minister Dominic Cardy says his department has followed public health recommendations throughout the pandemic.

"In this particular case, the recommendation is clear and explicit that it was that measures be removed from New Brunswick classrooms the day after March break," said Cardy.

Cardy added, if more recommendations are made by public health, he will happily support those measures.