Coming up on the CHMA daily news roundup:
Sackville gets a new historic landmark
Nova Scotia looks to reopen
and CHMA checks in with Blooms Flowers and Gifts
But first:
AUDIO Higgs
we have confirmed a third active case of COVID-19 in the Hamilton region.
Premier Blaine Higgs and Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell shared the bad news at a press conference yesterday afternoon.
Higgs says the new case is a medical professional who traveled to Quebec for personal reasons, and upon returning did not self isolate. Instead, they continued to work in medical facilities, including the Campbellton hospital, and saw multiple patients over a two week period.
Russell said all three cases active cases are part of a single cluster related to the newly identified travel case.
Russell said public health workers are now busy tracing a large number contacts.
AUDIO Russell 2
because there’s a 14 day incubation period. These three cases who just tested positive recently, could have been contagious anytime throughout that 14 day period prior to them testing positive. And if they transmitted to somebody who traveled outside of that zone, or were in contact with people from outside that zone, that means that there are people across the province who could have been at risk and still are at risk. And so that’s why I need everybody in the province to really be vigilant about physical distancing, and limiting your close contacts. So, again, we’re very, very concerned about the Hamilton area right now. But we know that over the last 14 days, other people from outside that region could also have been affected.
As a result of the potential for significant spread, Russell and Higgs announced Campbellton would move back to the orange level in the reopening plan until further notice.
AUDIO Russell 3
This means that residents of the Hamilton Dalhousie region should avoid close contact outside their two household bubble and non regulated health professionals and personal service businesses that opened up last Friday will again have to be closed. You brunswickers who have traveled to the Hamilton Dalhousie area in the past week, or have been in close contact with a person who has traveled to that region during this time, should monitor their health and seek testing if symptoms emerge. If you have recently traveled to this region, you can seek testing even if you do not have symptoms at this time
Russell said mobile testing units will be sent to Campbellton and area, and that tests will be conducted even if people are not reporting symptoms.
Premier Higgs responded to questions about whether this new cluster could affect provincial plans to reopen:
AUDIO Higgs 4
We knew there that reopening our province would increase our risk. However this situation could have happened without reopening. And that’s what is most concerning. This is why we must continue to do everything in our province in our power to minimize the risk and protect the health and safety of all new brunswickers. Our border protections are an important element of limiting the spread of COVID-19 within our province. New Brunswick has chosen to keep its borders controlled at this time. This is further evidence so the need To continue to do that
Just last week, about 400 people gathered on the bridge between Campbellton and Pointe-a-la-Croix, Quebec to protest the strict border controls that have split the communities.
Pointe-a-la-Croix, Campbellton, and the Liss-ti-goosh [Listuguj] First Nation operate as one tightly knit community. Border restrictions have separated families and posed difficulties in getting supplies on both sides of the border. It’s a situation not unlike that in the Tantramar region, split by the provincial border with Nova Scotia.
Both Higgs and Russell reiterated that border controls would remain tight for the time being. And both urged New Brunswickers repeatedly to continue to take public health measures seriously.
AUDIO Higgs 5
So we are relying heavily More so than ever, on the citizens of the province to really pay attention and not try to skirt the rules. But really Let’s keep this confined. Let’s like public house do their work. And and let’s, let’s over the next couple of weeks get a real handle on this.
While it’s expected testing for COVID-19 will increase in the next few days in response to the situation in Campbellton, testing for the past week is still just below the level recommended by New Brunswick Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell.
The province announced 376 new test results Wednesday.
105 of those results came from the South East region.
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Nova Scotia has announced the next steps toward reopening the province.
Effective June 5th, most businesses required to close under the public health order can reopen.
Businesses must follow protocols in the plan that is tailored to their sector.
This includes ensuring physical distancing, increased cleaning and other protective measures for staff and customers.
Restaurants, bars, wineries, personal services like hair salons and spas, fitness facilities and veterinarians will be able to reopen after June 5th.
Other health providers like dentists and physiotherapists can also reopen on June 5th, provided they follow protocols in their respective college and association plans, as approved by public health.
Daycares will not reopen until a later date.
Sackville has a new historic landmark.
It’s a memorial to four Methodist churches that stood one after the other in downtown Sackville for nearly two centuries.
The memorial consists of a huge church bell beside a plaque in the old Methodist cemetery across from the Cranewood bakery on Main Street.
It’s next to the site where the Sackville Methodist/United Church stood until it was torn down nearly five years ago.
Local historian Charles Scobie says that church’s twelve-hundred pound bell serves as a memorial to all four Methodist churches:
CLIP OPENS: “It’s one of the very few things that are left…
ENDS: “…some historical details of each of the churches.”
Charles Scobie says the Sackville Rotary Club contributed seven hundred dollars to erect the historic plaque while developer John Lafford donated the big bell.
Scobie says Methodists brought their evangelical religion to Sackville from Yorkshire in the 1770s.
Over many years, he says, they helped build the town and supported the development of Mount Allison University.
The province has issued its first Heat Alert under a new system designed to warn people when precautions might be in order to avoid the effects of significant heat events.
There are three alert levels. Moncton and the southeast region are currently under a level 1 warning, meaning people with pre-existing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases may be affected.
Level two means increased risk of heat stress and heat stroke for all, while level three means high risk.
The Department of Health is using its Twitter account, with 4,687 followers, to issue the alerts.
New Brunswick Forest Fire Watch has updated the estimated size of the forest fire burning right now in Sabbies River, south of Mirimachi. They say the fire covers over 800 hectares of forest, nearly double the previously estimated size.
There’s an above average number of forest fires in New Brunswick this year due to dry conditions, says Roger Collet from the New Brunswick fire centre.
About 60 to 70 percent of forest fires happen in the spring season, he says. Despite the wet ground, dead, dry grass and leaves provide ideal fuel for accidental fires.
Collet told CHMA’s Erica Butler that human activity is generally at the root of most springtime fires.
AUDIO Collet
springtime fires unless and when we don’t, you know, get a lot of thunderstorms at this time of year, are all human caused fires. So they could be accidental, industry, you know, piece of equipment that might have got the fire going on. It could be somebody that was out fishing, that maybe you know, had a fire for their lunch, which probably weren’t supposed to but didn’t extinguish it properly. Could be somebody who dropped cigarette in the wrong place and it didn’t get extinguished. So, you know, accidentally could be possibly be actual, you know, somebody just thought well, because especially a lot of people still, for some reason like to burn grass off in their fields and things like that. So sometimes that gets away and will cause
fires so.
So at this time of year yeah, they’re they’re pretty much all human caused fires
A burn ban is currently in force across all counties of New Brunswick.
AUDIO COLLET 2
that’s probably not going to change so we get a significant amount of rain. So even if we got four or five millimeters of rain, you know, we’re probably not going to change the status on that. Right now actually, we’re asking that all public, stay out of the forest right now.
It’s there’s no
if there’s no reason for them to be there, we’re asking that they not go to the woods, I guess.
Oh, wow, just for safety. Just
pick Yeah, for safety. Like I said, these fires are generally accidental, they may not even know that they caused it. So, you know, driving around on a ATV sometimes can be, you know, little twigs and stuff that gets wedged into near their exhaust system heat up and turn into an ember and fall off and then that’s what gets the fire going. And they would never know that that even caused the fire. So at this time, we’re we’re asking that the public stay out of the out of the woods, if at all possible.
The Town of Amherst has taken an electrifying step towards a greener environment.
Crews have started installing 260 solar panels on the Amherst Stadium roof.
The panels cover about 33 per cent of the stadium’s roof and are estimated to generate an annual output of about 123,000 kilowatt hours.
Mayor David Kogon says the town is very proud of this project.
He says it is another tangible step towards being a greener community and a better steward of the environment.
The installation of the solar array will cost just over $250,000.
It’s the first of three projects Amherst is participating in as part of the Solar Electricity for Community Buildings Program sponsored by the Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mines and Clean Nova Scotia.
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Finally on today’s roundup, Erica Butler brings you another instalment of the Check-In.
Erica spoke with Olivia McNair of Blooms Flower Shop, to find out how the shop survived the shutdown, and what customers can expect now that its reopened.
AUDIO:
That was the CHMA daily news roundup.
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