HALIFAX -- Health officials in New Brunswick are reporting 14 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and an outbreak at the J.D. Irving sawmill in Saint-Léonard, N.B.

According to public health, they are investigating five confirmed COVID-19 cases at the lumber company. They say contact tracing and employee testing at the facility is underway.

In a statement from J.D. Irving, they say the five employees who tested positive work in an area away from the main sawmill. They also added all 272 employees who work at the Saint-Léonard location will have the opportunity to be voluntarily tested three times for COVID-19 over the next two weeks.

"We wish our co-workers a speedy recovery. Keeping one another safe is the most important priority in our sawmills,’" said Jerome Pelletier, vice president of sawmills for J.D. Irving, Limited, in a news release on Wednesday. "As soon as we learned about the first positive case we closed the area where these employees work to perform deep disinfection. We also initiated our contact tracing protocols. We are now working closely with Public Health to perform COVID testing for employees at the site."

The company says all five employees are self-isolating and none of them are in hospital.

14 NEW CASES

New Brunswick reported 14 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday.

Twenty-two previously reported cases have recovered, leaving the province with 175 active cases.

Of Wednesday's new cases, one is in Zone 2 (Saint John region) and involves an individual in their 80s.

One is in Zone 3 (Fredericton region) and involves an individual in their 50s.

Twelve of the cases are in Zone 4 (Edmundston region) and involve:

  • an individual 19 and under
  • two people in their 20s
  • an individual in their 30s
  • an individual in their 40s
  • two people in their 50s
  • an individual in their 60s
  • an individual in their 70s
  • two people in their 80s
  • an individual 90 and over.

POSITIVE CASE AT MARIKA CARE AND EDUCATION CENTRE

Public health has confirmed a positive case at the Marika Care and Education Centre in Grand Falls, N.B.

In a news release from the province, they say families have been notified and the facility is closed Wednesday to allow contact tracing.

"If you or a family member have been in close contact with a case, you will be notified by Public Health for contact tracing. If you do not hear directly from Public Health, you have not been identified as a close contact," wrote the province in a news release on Wednesday.

COVID-19 DATA

New Brunswick has had 1,375 confirmed cases since the pandemic began. In total, 1,178 people have recovered, and 21 people have died as a result of the novel coronavirus.

Six people are currently in hospital, with two in the intensive care unit.

Public health says 996 COVID-19 tests were completed on Tuesday– 213,163 tests have been administered in total since the pandemic began.

The number of cases are broken down by New Brunswick’s seven health zones:

  • Zone 1 – Moncton region: 329 confirmed cases (28 active cases)
  • Zone 2 – Saint John region: 221 confirmed cases (4 active cases)
  • Zone 3 – Fredericton region: 238 confirmed cases (13 active cases)
  • Zone 4 – Edmundston region: 371 confirmed cases (127 active cases)
  • Zone 5 – Campbellton region: 182 confirmed cases (zero active cases)
  • Zone 6 – Bathurst region: 26 confirmed cases (2 active cases)
  • Zone 7 – Miramichi region: 8 confirmed cases (1 active cases)

RED AND ORANGE LEVEL RULES / LOCKDOWN

Zone 4 (Edmundston region) remains in the Red level.

All other zones are at the Orange level under the province's mandatory order.

UPDATE ON VACCINES

According to New Brunswick's COVID-19 dashboard, the province has administered 18,643 doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday. Of those, 5,347 people have received their second dose.

The province has received 25,850 doses of vaccine as of Monday, and are holding 7,207 in reserve for second dose and planned clinics.

VEHICLE TRAFFIC INFORMATION

New Brunswick's online dashboard includes information about vehicle traffic attempting to enter the province.

On Tuesday, 1,328 personal and 1,407 commercial vehicles attempted to cross the border into the province.

Of the vehicles attempting to cross the border, 14 were refused entry, for a refusal rate of 0.5 per cent.

Correction:

A previous version of this article said there were 14 new cases in Zone 4 (Edmundston region). It should have read 12, which has been corrected in the above article.