N.B. College of Family Physicians concerned about holiday weekend COVID-19 transmission

Holiday weekend gatherings have some family physicians wondering what COVID-19 numbers will look like in the coming weeks.

"It could be another spike or it could be we've gotten over the peak,” said Dr. Ghislain Lavoie, president of the College of Family Physicians in N.B.

Without pandemic measures in place, Lavoie is afraid cases could skyrocket.

"It’s when you invite people into your home and the more people you have into your home the more chances you have of it spreading to everyone that's there,” said Lavoie.

“I think reducing the contacts to a safe number, and me, I'm going to be seeing two, maybe four people at different times.”

Lavoie says he’s torn between the importance of socializing his young children and keeping them safe from COVID-19.

"What I'm doing is, I'm very careful about who I am letting into my home because we know that's where most of the transmission is,” Lavoie said.

“It's not necessarily going to be going to the grocery store and being exposed there. Because if you wear your mask there you're protected and you're protecting others as well.”

Folks in Fredericton this weekend had mixed feelings on holiday events without mandates.

"It's nice to have some of the freedoms back that we used to have, but still some anxiety and apprehension for sure and I'm still being very careful masking indoors in most environments,” said Richard Scott, who is home visiting from Toronto.

CTV caught up with Stanley Barrett of Lincoln, N.B., after coming from an Easter church service.

"Now we're going to Cora's for breakfast and we won't have to wear a mask, time to get over COVID," said Barrett.

David Filby on the other hand, would like to see some COVID-19 measures in place.

"Simply because I don't really see what harm there is in wearing a mask. It doesn't hurt anyone, but to each their own I guess,” said Filby.

According to Dr. Lavoie, the damage may already be done, but a spike following holiday gatherings is likely.

"When the measures were taken away, a lot of people started seeing each other and that obviously brought the numbers up,” said Lavoie. “But what we do know is that a lot of people that had an infection from one sub-variant that now have an infection from the second as well.”

He says now, family physicians are concerned about the affects of long COVID-19 and what that will look like years from now.