N.B. reports 4 deaths; increase in hospitalizations in weekly COVID-19 report

Four more people in New Brunswick have died in relation to COVID-19, according to the province's weekly update.

Health officials are also reporting an increase in the number of hospital admissions.

Data in the report released Tuesday covers a seven-day period between June 26 and July 2.

Since the pandemic was declared in March 2020, 429 people in New Brunswick have died in relation to COVID-19.

HOSPITALIZATIONS

Last week, there were 22 people admitted to hospital because of the virus — an increase of 16 from the previous report.

The province says there are currently 19 people hospitalized with the virus, an increase of four over last week. One person is in the intensive care unit.

According to the report, the highest portion of hospitalizations for COVID-19 is among people aged 60-79.

NEW CASES

For two weeks straight, the province has seen an increase in case numbers, with 768 PCR-confirmed cases being reported — over 280 more than were reported last week.

The regional breakdown of Tuesday’s cases is as follows:

• Zone 1: 158
• Zone 2: 286
• Zone 3: 153
• Zone 4: 43
• Zone 5: 18
• Zone 6: 65
• Zone 7: 45

The seven-day moving average of new cases is 110 — an increase of 41 over last week.

According to the province, 1,147 cases of COVID-19 have also been identified through rapid tests.

RANDOM SEQUENCING OF N.B. COVID-19 CASES

New Brunswick provided data from a recent random sample that was sequenced to better understand which COVID-19 strains are currently in the province.

That data shows:

• Zero per cent of samples are BA.1
• 53 per cent of samples are BA.2
• 14 per cent of samples are BA.4
• 33 per cent of samples are BA.5

VACCINATIONS

As of Tuesday, 93.3 per cent of people in New Brunswick had one dose of vaccine, 88.2 per cent had a second dose and 52.8 per cent had a booster dose.

COVID-19 data provided by the province can be found on its website.